THE CASE OF A PURE PUBLIC GOOD: TELEVISION BROADCASTING

Abstract

Broadcasting is a public good only insofar as it stimulates widespread public interest, including children and economists. It is only public good by definition, but not by virtue of analysis based on technical economic factors, if it is meant that broadcasting automatically calls forth the 'vexing problem of collective expenditure.' On technical grounds, I do not see any necessity for either a purely commercial ('free' reception), nor purely subscription television arrangement; after all, a coexistence policy is a distinct possibility. If the station 'owners' had the 'property rights' which did not restrict them to commercial transmission, broadcasting might, in fact, consist of both some subcription system and commercial sponsorship which may represent a utilization of the scarce resources. The creation of additional value through utilization of resources is the true costs which have been inflicted on the society by virtue of the restriction of pay television arrangement.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1963
Accession Number
AD0411839

Entities

People

  • Jora R. Minasian

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Defense
  • Broadcasting
  • Communities
  • Competition
  • Corporations
  • Deterrence
  • Economics
  • Elastic Properties
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Production
  • Productivity
  • Property Rights
  • Radio Broadcasting
  • Stations
  • Statistics
  • Television Broadcasting

Readers

  • Computer Networking
  • International Journalism and Media Studies.
  • Theoretical Analysis.