IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jcomle/v1y2005i4p679-705..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competition Between Cable Television And Direct Broadcast Satellite: The Importance Of Switching Costs And Regional Sports Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Stewart Wise
  • Kiran Duwadi

Abstract

We use aggregate firm-level price data and other related demographic variables to examine the cost of switching between cable television and direct broadcast satellite (DBS). We find that switching costs appear to affect consumers' desire to switch from one service to another. We then use observation-specific dummy variables that stratify cable price to examine whether consumer behavior varies depending on the size of price change. We find that, when quality-adjusted prices for basic cable services increase substantially, subscribers will switch from cable to DBS, presumably at the point at which the price change is larger than the cost of switching. However, we find some evidence that DBS penetration is suppressed in areas where cable operators offer regional sports channels.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Stewart Wise & Kiran Duwadi, 2005. "Competition Between Cable Television And Direct Broadcast Satellite: The Importance Of Switching Costs And Regional Sports Networks," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(4), pages 679-705.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jcomle:v:1:y:2005:i:4:p:679-705.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/joclec/nhi020
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher F Baum & Mark E. Schaffer & Steven Stillman, 2003. "Instrumental variables and GMM: Estimation and testing," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(1), pages 1-31, March.
    2. Paul Klemperer, 1995. "Competition when Consumers have Switching Costs: An Overview with Applications to Industrial Organization, Macroeconomics, and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 62(4), pages 515-539.
    3. Tasneem Chipty, 2001. "Vertical Integration, Market Foreclosure, and Consumer Welfare in the Cable Television Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 428-453, June.
    4. Paul Klemperer & A. Jorge Padilla, 1997. "Do Firms' Product Lines Include Too Many Varieties?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(3), pages 472-488, Autumn.
    5. Tasneem Chipty, 1995. "Horizontal integration for bargaining Power: Evidence from the Cable Television Industry," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 375-397, June.
    6. Chipty, Tasneem, 1995. "Horizontal Integration for Bargaining Power: Evidence from the Cable Television Industry," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 375-397, Summer.
    7. Klemperer, Paul, 1992. "Equilibrium Product Lines: Competing Head-to-Head May Be Less Competitive," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 740-755, September.
    8. Beggs, Alan W & Klemperer, Paul, 1992. "Multi-period Competition with Switching Costs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(3), pages 651-666, May.
    9. Klemperer, Paul D, 1987. "Entry Deterrence in Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(388a), pages 99-117, Supplemen.
    10. John W. Mayo & Yasuji Otsuka, 1991. "Demand, Pricing, and Regulation: Evidence from the Cable TV Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(3), pages 396-410, Autumn.
    11. William M. Emmons III & Robin A. Prager, 1997. "The Effects of Market Structure and Ownership on Prices and Service Offerings in the U.S. Cable Television Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 28(4), pages 732-750, Winter.
    12. Paul Klemperer, 1987. "Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 375-394.
    13. Paul Klemperer, 1987. "The Competitiveness of Markets with Switching Costs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(1), pages 138-150, Spring.
    14. Beil, Richard O, Jr. & Dazzio Jr., Thomas & Ekelund Jr., Robert B. & Jackson, John D., 1993. "Competition and the Price of Municipal Cable Television Services: An Empirical Study," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 401-415, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rizkiah, Siti K. & Disli, Mustafa & Salim, Kinan & Razak, Lutfi A., 2021. "Switching costs and bank competition: Evidence from dual banking economies," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    2. Sherzod B. Akhundjanov & Ben O. Smith & Max St. Brown, 2023. "Path Dependence as a Path to Consumer Surplus and Loyalty," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 63(1), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Ruiz-Aliseda, Francisco, 2016. "When do switching costs make markets more or less competitive?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 121-151.
    4. Chod, Jiri & Lyandres, Evgeny, 2023. "Product market competition with crypto tokens and smart contracts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(1), pages 73-91.
    5. Wei Yin & Kent Matthews, 2016. "The determinants and profitability of switching costs in Chinese banking," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(43), pages 4156-4166, September.
    6. Niloofar Abolfathi & Simone Santamaria & Charles Williams, 2022. "How Does Firm Scope Depend on Customer Switching Costs? Evidence from Mobile Telecommunications Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(1), pages 316-332, January.
    7. Bouckaert, Jan & Degryse, Hans & Provoost, Thomas, 2010. "Enhancing market power by reducing switching costs," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 131-133, November.
    8. Mark J. Tremblay, 2019. "Platform Competition and Endogenous Switching Costs," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 537-559, December.
    9. Mitja Kovač & Ann-Sophie Vandenberghe, 2015. "Regulation of Automatic Renewal Clauses: A Behavioural Law and Economics Approach," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 287-313, September.
    10. Koray Cosguner & Tat Y. Chan & P. B. (Seethu) Seetharaman, 2018. "Dynamic Pricing in a Distribution Channel in the Presence of Switching Costs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1212-1229, March.
    11. Wing Man Wynne Lam, 2017. "Switching Costs in Two-Sided Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 136-182, March.
    12. Donna, Javier D., 2018. "Measuring Long-Run Price Elasticities in Urban Travel Demand," MPRA Paper 90059, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Ciotti, Fabrizio & Hornuf, Lars & Stenzhorn, Eliza, 2021. "Lock-In Effects in Online Labor Markets," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2021014, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    14. Guney, Begum & Richter, Michael, 2018. "Costly switching from a status quo," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 55-70.
    15. Gregory S. Crawford, 2015. "The economics of television and online video markets," ECON - Working Papers 197, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    16. Xuying Zhao & Hong Guo & Gangshu Cai & Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay, 2021. "The Role of Expectation–Reality Discrepancy in Service Contracts," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(11), pages 4160-4175, November.
    17. Florez Ramos, Esmeralda & Blind, Knut, 2020. "Data portability effects on data-driven innovation of online platforms: Analyzing Spotify," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(9).
    18. Toker Doganoglu, 2010. "Switching costs, experience goods and dynamic price competition," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 167-205, June.
    19. Toru Kikuchi, 2009. "Switching Costs And The Foreign Firm'S Entry," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 77(3), pages 366-372, June.
    20. Kummitha, Rama Krishna Reddy, 2018. "Entrepreneurial urbanism and technological panacea: Why Smart City planning needs to go beyond corporate visioning?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 330-339.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jcomle:v:1:y:2005:i:4:p:679-705.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/jcle .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.