Regulatory Choice in Communications: The Case of Content-Rating Schemes in the Audiovisual Industry

This article addresses challenges confronting policy makers when considering self- and co-regulatory regimes for audiovisual content. It proposes a template for regulatory choice to assess the potential of such schemes by examining institutional designs, characteristics of the industries involved, and the regulatory environment. Subsequently, the template is used to compare performance, institutional success factors, and enabling contextual factors of selected content-rating schemes in the audiovisual industry. The results of this case study demonstrate the value of the analytical approach for research and policy-making. Findings suggest a combination of industry self-regulation and public oversight for the governance of content-rating schemes.