1998 was the year when new digital services made the breakthrough to consumers, and alliances and joint ventures in television increased, especially in Europe.

During 1999, the market will be watching to see how much the public are prepared to pay for the new services.

But already there have been warnings that the interests of those who cannot afford to subscribe will also have to be protected.

Peter Feuilherade of BBC Monitoring's publication `World Media'has this roundup of broadcasting around the world in 1998: 1998 was the year when digital television made the big breakthrough to implant itself firmly in the consciousness of consumers, especially in Europe, with the promise of better sound and picture quality, interactive services and dozens of new channels.

In Britain, digital satellite TV was launched in October and digital terrestrial TV in November, with digital cable TV promised for the first half of next year.

In contrast, DAB (digital audio broadcasting), or digital radio, remained hampered by the continuing delay on the part of manufacturers in bringing sets into the shops in large enough quantities and at realistic prices to spark consumer take-up.

Alliances and mergers Deregulation, the growing rate of technological change and the irreversible momentum of the digital TV trend led to a constantly more competitive marketplace in 1998.

Alliances and joint ventures in TV increased, especially in Europe, although the EU blocked a planned German pay-TV merger between Kirch and Bertelsmann.

More companies began expanding into other countries, using digital technology to try to maximize their programming assets.

The BBC and the US company Discovery signed a partnership deal in March for the production and distribution of TV programmes.

The US-based media mogul Rupert Murdoch set up a new Milan-based subsidiary, News Corp Europe, to spearhead his push into the continental European market.

At the end of the year, he took a controlling interest in a new Italian digital pay-TV venture.

Paying more to watch more TV The benefits of digital TV carry an extra price tag on top of national licence fees.

Nevertheless, according to the media editor of The Times newspaper in London, pay-TV and pay-per-view's share of TV revenues will overtake licence fee income in Britain by 2004.

To add to the pressure on European public broadcasters in 1998 from declining audience shares in the face of competition from private channels, the European Commission wants public TV channels to tighten up accounting procedures to differentiate between public service programming and other programmes, such as sports or entertainment, which will have to be financed by advertisements and sponsorship.

The massive worldwide interest in TV coverage of the 1998 football World Cup sparked a debate on the price that public broadcasters would have to pay for the next World Cup and other major sporting events.

TV rights have become the major source of income for most sports.

The European rights for the 2002 World Cup have been bought by a private group which intends to sell them off piecemeal, largely to commercial pay-TV stations.

Around the world In April, Britain hosted the European Audiovisual Conference in Birmingham, where a major theme was the increasingly tough competition that Europe's television and film industries face from the USA.

European Commission President Jacques Santer said that while greater private sector investment was required in audiovisual production in Europe, support at national and EU level was vital too.

Looking beyond Europe, the economic and political crises in Asia, with some currencies losing up to 80 per cent of their value against the US dollar, dampened the forecasts in what had been seen 12 months ago as the world's fastest-growing regional pay-TV market.

But at a conference in Singapore in December, experts predicted that quick growth could return to the cable and satellite industry as early as mid-1999.

Rupert Murdoch's continuing efforts to expand in China's television market paid off towards the end of the year when he met President Jiang Zemin, who praised his coverage of China.

India said it would allow the country's private satellite TV channels to raise their level of foreign equity from the current 20 per cent.

In Russia, 1998 saw further political battles for control over broadcasting as politicians prepared for the 1999/2000 elections.

Poland shone as Eastern Europe's most attractive market for pay-TV growth.

In the Balkans, the international community overseeing Bosnia's peace process tried to regulate the hundreds of radio and TV stations in the country and set up a free media system.

Serbia faced widespread criticism for passing a media law which, among other things, banned relays of broadcasts from foreign radio and TV stations and closed several independent newspapers.

In the Middle East, the Arab Broadcasting Union decided to allow private radio and TV stations - still a rarity in the Arab world - to join state-run broadcasters as members.

But it kept out the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite TV station, which Jordan and some Gulf states have criticized for its coverage of inter-Arab political differences.

Libya renamed its external radio service the Voice of Africa, reflecting its changed political orientation away from the Arab world.

More private broadcasters made their debut in Africa. particularly in Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique.

In Latin America, the first private TV stations went on the air in Colombia in June, and the number of pay-TV subscribers rose in every established market except Brazil.

And the United States launched two new international radio services broadcasting to Iran and Iraq, and announced plans for a new Radio Democracy for Africa service.

Global Internet The Internet was a worldwide success story in 1998.

Within 48 hours of its release, the Starr report on the Clinton-Lewinsky affair had been read online by dozens of millions of people around the globe.

At the end of the year there were about 2,000 radio and TV stations broadcasting on the Net.

From political dissidents in China (one of whom was charged with "Net subversion" in November) to ethnic Albanian journalists in Kosovo - who started Radio 21 on the Net in May 1998, via a US-based web site, after they were refused a broadcasting frequency - broadcasters as well as political groups around the world used the Internet to deliver their messages in increasingly sophisticated ways.

And the year also saw a growing number of instances of hacking into web sites as a new form of propaganda activity.

The future During the next 12 months, the market will be watching to see how much consumers are prepared to pay for new digital services .

But already there have been signs of concern that the interests of those who cannot afford to subscribe to the new digital offerings will also have to be protected.