69

Most developed countries impose quotas of domestic contents in broadcasting. Their alleged aim is to promote diversity by fostering domestic content and hence a more diverse production. This reasoning ignores a possible trade-off between repetition and new program diffusion. When domestic and foreign contents are imperfectly substituable, a broadcaster confronted with a quota will find optimal to compensate for the reduction of foreign programming by increasing the number of diffusions of (imperfectly) substitutable domestic programs. Total broadcasting time being limited, this will force the broadcaster to abandon less popular types of programming, whereby reducing program diversity. Classification JEL: L59, L82, Z10