IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mlb/wpaper/1118.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Consolidation and Price Discrimination in the Cable Television Industry

Author

Listed:
  • David P.Byrne

Abstract

This paper measures the impact of consolidation on cable television prices, product quality,profits and consumer welfare. I estimate a multi-product monopoly model using panel data on cable menus and costs in Canada from 1990 to 1996. Using counterfactual simulations, I find mean consumer welfare rises with acquisitions, as does welfare inequality across consumers. Scale economies are the primary driver of consolidation effects quantitatively, with firm heterogeneity in demand and costs having a smaller impact. Regional consolidation yields non-negligible welfare gains, particularly in rural markets where potential cable quality improvements and cost reductions are the largest.

Suggested Citation

  • David P.Byrne, 2011. "Consolidation and Price Discrimination in the Cable Television Industry," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1118, The University of Melbourne.
  • Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:1118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/784254/1118.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chenghuan Sean Chu, 2010. "The effect of satellite entry on cable television prices and product quality," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(4), pages 730-764, December.
    2. 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.
    3. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    4. Patrick Parsons, 2003. "Horizontal Integration in the Cable Television Industry: History and Context," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 23-40.
    5. David Byrne, 2010. "Acquisitions As A Response To Deregulation: Evidence From The Cable Television Industry," Working Paper 1242, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    6. Tasneem Chipty & Christopher M. Snyder, 1999. "The Role Of Firm Size In Bilateral Bargaining: A Study Of The Cable Television Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 326-340, May.
    7. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521747387, October.
    8. Stephen M. Law, 1999. "Holding the line: The CRTC and the pricing of Canadian basic cable television services," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(3), pages 630-653, May.
    9. Gregory S. Crawford, 2014. "Cable Regulation in the Internet Era," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Regulation and Its Reform: What Have We Learned?, pages 137-193, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Steven T. Berry & Joel Waldfogel, 2001. "Do Mergers Increase Product Variety? Evidence from Radio Broadcasting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 1009-1025.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous product choice: A progress report," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 315-320.
    2. Justin P. Johnson & Andrew Rhodes, 2021. "Multiproduct mergers and quality competition," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 633-661, September.
    3. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous Product Choice: A Progress Report," Economic Research Papers 270745, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    4. Gregory S. Crawford & Oleksandr Shcherbakov & Matthew Shum, 2015. "The welfare effects of endogenous quality choice in cable television markets," ECON - Working Papers 202, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    5. Crawford, Gregory & Shcherbakov, Oleksandr & Shum, Matthew, 2015. "The Welfare E ects of Endogenous Quality Choice in Cable Television Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 10793, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Nissan, Edward & Naghshpour, Shahdad, 2014. "Costs and Revenues of à la Carte (ALC) Versus Bundling in Television Markets," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 44(1).

    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. David P. Byrne, 2015. "Testing Models Of Differentiated Products Markets: Consolidation In The Cable Tv Industry," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(3), pages 805-850, August.
    2. Dong Chen & David Waterman, 2007. "Vertical Ownership, Program Network Carriage, and Tier Positioning in Cable Television: An Empirical Study," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 30(3), pages 227-251, May.
    3. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous product choice: A progress report," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 315-320.
    4. Gregory S. Crawford & Oleksandr Shcherbakov & Matthew Shum, 2015. "The welfare effects of endogenous quality choice in cable television markets," ECON - Working Papers 202, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    5. Marco A. Marini, 2018. "Collusive agreements in vertically differentiated markets," Chapters, in: Luis C. Corchón & Marco A. Marini (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory and Industrial Organization, Volume II, chapter 3, pages 34-56, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Crawford, Gregory & Shcherbakov, Oleksandr & Shum, Matthew, 2015. "The Welfare E ects of Endogenous Quality Choice in Cable Television Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 10793, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Gabszewicz, Jean J. & Marini, Marco A. & Tarola, Ornella, 2015. "Endogenous Mergers in Vertically Differentiated Markets," MPRA Paper 68318, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Pereira, Pedro & Ribeiro, Tiago, 2011. "The impact on broadband access to the Internet of the dual ownership of telephone and cable networks," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 283-293, March.
    9. Steven Berry & Alon Eizenberg & Joel Waldfogel, 2016. "Optimal product variety in radio markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(3), pages 463-497, August.
    10. Argentesi, Elena & Buccirossi, Paolo & Cervone, Roberto & Duso, Tomaso & Marrazzo, Alessia, 2021. "The effect of mergers on variety in grocery retailing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Elena Argentesi & Paolo Buccirossi & Roberto Cervone & Tomaso Duso & Alessia Marrazzo, 2018. "Price or Variety? An Evaluation of Mergers Effects in Grocery Retailing," CESifo Working Paper Series 7035, CESifo.
    12. Argentesi, Elena & Buccirossi, Paolo & Cervone, Roberto & Duso, Tomaso & Marrazzo, Alessia, 2021. "The effect of mergers on variety in grocery retailing," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 79, pages 1-19.
    13. Kurt R. Brekke & Luigi Siciliani & Odd Rune Straume, 2017. "Horizontal mergers and product quality," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 1063-1103, November.
    14. Gregory S. Crawford, 2015. "The economics of television and online video markets," ECON - Working Papers 197, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    15. Jullien, Bruno & Pavan, Alessandro & Rysman, Marc, 2021. "Two-sided Markets, Pricing, and Network Effects," TSE Working Papers 21-1238, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    16. Anderson, Simon P. & Gabszewicz, Jean J., 2006. "The Media and Advertising: A Tale of Two-Sided Markets," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 18, pages 567-614, Elsevier.
    17. Sutirtha Bagchi & Jagadeesh Sivadasan, 2017. "Barriers to Entry and Competitive Behavior: Evidence from Reforms of Cable Franchising Regulations," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(3), pages 510-558, September.
    18. Cosnita-Langlais, Andreea, 2012. "Horizontal market concentration: Theoretical insights from spatial models," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 22-32.
    19. Crawford, Gregory S., 2012. "Endogenous Product Choice: A Progress Report," Economic Research Papers 270745, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    20. Robin S. Lee, 2013. "Vertical Integration and Exclusivity in Platform and Two-Sided Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2960-3000, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consolidation; Price Discrimination; Economies of Scale; Firm Heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mlb:wpaper:1118. 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: Dandapani Lokanathan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demelau.html .

    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.