Vertical Integration and Program Access in the Cable Television Industry*
نویسنده
چکیده
Effective competition for local monopoly cable systems would seem to offer a natural solution to nagging problems widely attributed to the cable industry, such as high prices and poor service. In regulatory and legislative proceedings leading up to the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992,(note 1) however, potential or existing competitors to local cable systems complained that cable programming networks(note 2) either refused to do business with them or offered them programming only on discriminatory terms.(note 3) These competitors include home satellite dish (HSD) owners and program distributors, satellite master antenna system (SMATV) operators, multichannel multipoint distribution system (MMDS) operators, "overbuilt" cable system operators, and operators of direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems.(note 4) According to these complaints, established cable system operators are to blame for pressuring the networks, many of which are vertically affiliated with those operators, to engage in this discrimination and thus handicap the cable operators' competitors.
منابع مشابه
Vertical Integration, Market Foreclosure, and Consumer Welfare in the Cable Television Industry
I examine the effects of vertical integration between programming and distribution in the cable television industry. I assess the effects of ownership structure on program offerings, prices, and subscriptions, and I compare consumer welfnre across integrated and unintegrated markets. The results of this analysis suggest two general conclusions. First, integrated operators tend to exclude rival ...
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