PUBLISHED:September 28, 2015

Center for Innovation Policy event will examine future of video competition, regulation

The future of video competition and regulation will be the focus of a Oct. 9 conference in Washington hosted by Duke Law School’s Center for Innovation Policy.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Antitrust Division William J. Baer and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. of New Jersey, the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will address the conference. Other speakers will include top officials from the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and the Office of Management and Budget, as well as representatives of industry and leading experts from finance and academia.

“The provision of video programming is changing rapidly,” said Stuart M. Benjamin, Douglas B. Maggs Professor of Law at Duke and faculty co-director of the Center for Innovation Policy. “The universe of video providers has become more diverse, as have the forms of video programming and the platforms used to distribute video. This raises a set of questions at the intersection of innovation and policy.”

Among the questions that the conference will address:

  • Which business models show the greatest promise?
  • Will video markets look different from Internet broadband markets, and will over-the-top video become a full competitor to current cable offerings?
  • What do these competitive developments mean for the future of regulation?
  • What, if any, role should the federal government play in regulating video competition?
  • Which government entities should be involved, and what principles should guide them in choosing a particular regulatory approach?
  • How long, if at all, should they wait to adopt that approach?
  • Does Congress need to enact or revise legislation to allow for appropriate regulation?

Duke Law’s Center for Innovation Policy brings together legal professionals, technology and business leaders, government officials, and academic experts to identify improvements to federal law and policy that will promote innovation and economic growth. The center focuses on federal policy affecting information, communications, and intellectual property. It has a partnership with the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke's Fuqua School of Business and is also part of the university-wide Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative funded by Duke alumnus David Rubenstein. Previous conferences have focused on drug development, Internet regulation, and patent reform.

The conference will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9 at the offices of Venable, 575 7th Street, NW. Attendance is free and open to the public, but space is limited. To register, please visit https://duke.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0Jsg75wJx4HDvO5