ABSTRACT
In the area of broadcast regulation, it is clear that the rising marginal value of broadcast spectrum to its next-best users underlines the urgency of recovering a tangible return for the valuable privileges conferred there too. The extra costs imposed on next-best users, the forgone benefits of unused UHF, the creation of sizable economic rents in television, and the valuable policing of signal standards are all bases for the improved discharge of longstanding responsibilities of the Federal Communications Commission as regards program service. Among the policy options available are techniques to impose greater internal subsidization of cultural-informational-educational programming; to increase the number of markets with competing services and of communities with competing local stations; to enable the viewer to choose between local and national programming directly, via pay-TV and CATV; and techniques to finance public television as an alternate service in markets of varying sizes.
