A display control apparatus adapted to control, based on an image signal, a backlight block of interest that is selected from a plurality of backlight blocks that form an entire backlight of the display apparatus, wherein a total light emission of the backlight block of interest comprises backlight luminance of the backlight block of interest and luminance contributed by backlight blocks in the periphery of the backlight block of interest, the display control apparatus comprising: peripheral-representative-value computation means for computing, as a peripheral representative value, an average of calculated luminances of backlight blocks in the periphery of the backlight block of interest, wherein said calculated luminances are determined based on the image signal, the peripheral-representative-value computation means including neighboring average calculation means for calculating, as a neighboring average value, an average value of said calculated luminances of neighboring backlight blocks that exist in the neighborhood of the backlight block of interest, the average value being assigned a weight in correspondence with a distance from the backlight block of interest, and peripheral average calculation means for calculating, as a peripheral average value, an average value of calculated luminances of peripheral backlight blocks that exist in the periphery of the backlight block of interest at a position further away from the backlight block of interest than the neighboring backlight blocks, and wherein the peripheral-representative-value computation means is configured for computing the peripheral representative value on the basis of a weighted average between the neighboring average value and the peripheral average value; peripheral-contribution-amount computation means for subtracting from the peripheral representative value a portion determined in accordance with a diffusion coefficient so as to compute the amount of luminance contributed by the peripheral backlight blocks to the backlight block of interest; and backlight luminance amount computation means for computing the backlight luminance of the backlight block of interest on the basis of a difference between a necessary luminance based on the image signal for the backlight block of interest and the amount of luminance contributed by peripheral backlight blocks. peripheral-representative-value computation means for computing, as a peripheral representative value, an average of calculated luminances of backlight blocks in the periphery of the backlight block of interest, wherein said calculated luminances are determined based on the image signal, the peripheral-representative-value computation means including neighboring average calculation means for calculating, as a neighboring average value, an average value of said calculated luminances of neighboring backlight blocks that exist in the neighborhood of the backlight block of interest, the average value being assigned a weight in correspondence with a distance from the backlight block of interest, and peripheral average calculation means for calculating, as a peripheral average value, an average value of calculated luminances of peripheral backlight blocks that exist in the periphery of the backlight block of interest at a position further away from the backlight block of interest than the neighboring backlight blocks, and wherein the peripheral-representative-value computation means is configured for computing the peripheral representative value on the basis of a weighted average between the neighboring average value and the peripheral average value; peripheral-contribution-amount computation means for subtracting from the peripheral representative value a portion determined in accordance with a diffusion coefficient so as to compute the amount of luminance contributed by the peripheral backlight blocks to the backlight block of interest; and backlight luminance amount computation means for computing the backlight luminance of the backlight block of interest on the basis of a difference between a necessary luminance based on the image signal for the backlight block of interest and the amount of luminance contributed by peripheral backlight blocks.