Managing Law and Regulation

Abstract

The chapter deals with “non-market” forms of competition with rivals in the public sphere: litigation, lobbying, public relations and regulation. The legal function in media firms are discussed first, with the dimensions of compliance management and investment calculus for litigation. The next themes are the management of lobbying and of public relations, and how much to spend on them. The chapter then covers the regulatory process, both by industry self-regulation and by government, and how it is used strategically by companies. The concluding sections cover substantive media law: content restrictions such as libel and slander, morality and child protection, the regulating of advertising, antitrust and anti-monopoly law, rules against price discrimination, profit and investment regulation, regulation of “universal connectivity,” support for national industry, privacy protections and the future of video regulation. The case discussion covers the non-market competition between Comcast and Google.