이 글은 방송의 디지털화에 따라 검토해야 할 법제도의 내용을 다루었다. 이를 위해 디지털방송환경을 맞아 해외 주요국에서 추진하고 있는 방송법의 최근 변화를 중심으로 주요 이슈를 추출하였다. 비록 국가마다 디지털방송을 맞아 방송법에 반영하는 정도는 상이하지만 공통적으로 관심사가 되고 있는 이슈로는 허가제도, 규제기구, 소유제도, 경쟁제도, 방송의 개념, 공공의 이익 등을 들 수 있다. 여기에 우리나라의 특수한 상황으로 해외방송 수용문제를 들 수 있을 것이다. 2000년 방송법이 제정된 지 얼마 되지 않았지만 빠르게 변화하는 디지털방송환경은 벌써부터 방송법 개정문제를 제기하고 있다. 따라서 이 글에서는 최근 디지털방송환경을 법제화한 해외의 방송법을 통해서 나타나는 디지털방송법의 의제를 중심으로 논의하였다.
This paper deals with legislation which should be examined according to digitization of broadcasting. To do this object, this paper examines big foreign countries' recent legal change in the digital broadcasting era. In the US, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allows convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications on a large scale. The law permits M&A between the broadcasters and telecommunication companies, for example, AT&T s acquisition of TCI and MediaOne, and merge of AOL and lime Warner are two big deals. In 1999, the FCC published 〈A New FCC for the 21 st Century〉 which acclaimed promotion of digital broadcasting. On the other hand, the FCC emphasized the public interests of digital broadcasting. In Britain, the Broadcasting Act 1996 regulates licence of digital broadcasters for the first time. The law introduces 'a multiplex licence' which is a new legal concept in the digital broadcasting. In 2000, the British government announced a white paper, the title of which is 〈A New Future for Communications〉. It proposed an OFCOM(Office of Communications), which is a convergent regulatory institution. In Germany, the federal government tries to find 'a third road' to the digital broadcasting. In 1997, the government introduced tele-service law and media law to regulate a convergent service brought by digital broadcasting. Meanwhile, the French legislative approach is quite different from that of other countries. In digital broadcasting age, they emphasize public service broadcasting. The 2000 broadcasting act introduced a huge single public service broadcaster, France Television, to protect public interest in the new media era. In Italy, the 1997 broadcasting-telecom act introduced a single regulatory agency, the Autorita, which regulates broadcasting and telecommunications together. This convergent institution is a new one in European countries. In Japan, the government prepares for the convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications, even though it has not revised the broadcasting law yet. In 2000, however, the government sponsored committee on convergence suggested policy proposal to promote digitization of broadcasting and establishment of broadband infrastructure. Although the extent to which each country seeks to emphasize in the new digital environment is different, it is possible to seek common interests reflected in the legal question. They are licence system, regulatory institution, ownership regulation, competition regulation, and public interest. On top of that, this paper adds acceptance of foreign broadcasting in terms of cap~al and programming. Even though the 2000 Broadcasting Act was passed in the National Assembly just a year ago, which was an extremely difficult job to the all the relevant parties, the quickly changing digital broadcasting environment calls for revision of the law again. Therefore, this paper addresses major legal issues applied from the major foreign countries' new legislation for the digital broadcasting.