Dear Readers,
In this CPI Issue, we are looking at two volatile media questions—the hotly debated Comcast/Time Warner merger in the U.S. and media plurality in the U.K. Understanding the Comcast merger requires an appreciation that the diverse services the company provides — pay television, broadband, and content — that create horizontal & vertical merger issues plus a variety of possible remedies. Our authors present diverse perspectives on the issue – whether there are any real competition concerns arising from the Comcast merger at all? What may be the implications of the merger when the companies post-merger as buyers of content for cable and as controllers of the increasingly crowded bridge to customers-broadband? What may be effect of the merger on OTTs.
Then we turn our glance across the Atlantic, as the U.K. drafts new plurality regulations. In this context. There is an intriguing question: Can antitrust lessons be used to measure possible problems, create remedies, and overcome possible bias? To what degree can competition law be expected to promote the goals of media plurality? Does the process by which competition law has been enacted and grown to maturity have any lessons for a similar development in the area of the case of media plurality?
As always, thank you to our great panel of authors.
Sincerely,
CPI Team
