Public policy best practice in the field of Digital Terrestrial Television: Lessons from Sweden and Spain

This article aims to provide research results in the field of public policy addressing the implementation of digital terrestrial television. First, it identifies those particularities of the terrestrial platform that result in the need for public policy in order to face and successfully complete its switchover. Next, the national experiences of Sweden and Spain are compared, paying attention to the articulation of the institutional network involved and to those policies carried out in order to determine the market structure and the business model of the platform, as well as to plan the analogue switch-off. The final objective is to identify best practices and to extract lessons that are useful for those countries still dealing with the digitalization of terrestrial broadcasting. In addition, the reflections within this article might also be valuable for media policy-makers dealing with ongoing or future transition processes within the television system.