Reviewing Policies on Satellite Broadcasts in East Asia: New Technology, Political Economy, and Civil Society.

As an instrument of national integration, domestic television in many post-colonial countries has long neglected cultural minorities. Transnational television via newer satellite and cable technologies has been able to target cross-border ethnic groups which then constituted viable audience markets. Governments in Asia sought initially to control access to transnational broadcasts out of paternalistic nationalism, but audiences and entrepreneurs have circumvented such policies. Thus over the last decade the political economy of television in countries such as Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand have been transformed, though in differing ways. Belated media deregulation has often led to alliances between business and political elites. This paper argues that most policy developments in Asian television have been driven by business and government imperatives rather than by civil society involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]