If you won’t pay them, buy them!: merger mania in distribution and content markets

• Autores: Tom Evens
• Localización: International Journal of Digital Television, ISSN-e 2040-4190, Vol. 5, Nº. 3, 2014, págs. 261-265
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Structural changes in TV markets are resulting in carriage disputes that have spread from the United States to Europe. A carriage dispute refers to a disagreement between a pay-TV operator and a broadcaster over the right to ‘carry’ a broadcaster’s channel. TV broadcasters are demanding ever increasing payments from pay-TV operators that complain about lower-profit margins due to spiralling programming costs. This article discusses vertical mergers between distributors and broadcasters as a possible way to reduce retransmission payments and to secure cheap and privileged access to programming in today’s hypercompetitive video markets.