Public Interest Test of Broadcasting Services in Korea : Focused on US and UK

한국의 방송서비스 공익성심사에 관한 고찰 : 미국 및 영국의 사례를 중심으로

Broadcasting services sector has been facing strong public pressure to shift gears from regulation to deregulation since mid-1990s, where a triggering role was played particularly by rapid development of IT technology and content digitization. Major agenda was how to reduce regulatory divides between more liberal telecommunication sector and less liberal broadcasting. After all, common solution package worldwide was for the latter to switch over from network-dependent(vertical) to network-independent(horizontal) regulation, and to facilitate more open and competitive transmission with content market kept protected. This is no other than decoupling content provision from broadcasting and promoting market access towards the latter. Policy experiences of US and UK show that there exists a complementary relationship between quantitative and qualitative restrictions in implementing such deregulation. While mitigating quantitative ownership regulations in broadcasting, they also sought to systematize, so-called, PIT(public interest test) as a qualitative safety device to cope with the risk of losing fundamental public values accordingly in broadcasting. Recent domestic progress in broadcasting legislation in 2009, however, seems to overlook the growing importance of PIT in the process of deregulation. Bearing this motivation in mind and taking account of the relevant WTO disciplines, this paper is to address policy issues and suggestions for PIT in Korea's broadcasting services sector.