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Strategic Differentiation by Business Models: Free-to-Air and Pay-TV

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Why do `Free' and `Pay' content cohabit in practically all media markets? We develop a model in which two identical broadcasters compete for viewers and advertisers that leads to endogenous differentiation. We show that differentiation does not require heterogeneous agents. Instead, we relate it to the `two-sided' nature of these markets. The asymmetric outcome is driven by the property that business models form strategic substitutes: if one station goes towards the ‘pay’ business model the rival has stronger incentives to choose the ‘free’ business model and viceversa. We propose a simple and natural property of the advertising technology that enhances strategic substitutability guaranteeing differentiation. In regime of competition there is a misallocation of advertising messages and therefore a waste of viewer attention. We show that a multi-station monopolist does not necessarily maintain differentiation and never offers content for free.

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  • Emilio Calvano & Mihele Polo, 2016. "Strategic Differentiation by Business Models: Free-to-Air and Pay-TV," CSEF Working Papers 438, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy, revised 07 Nov 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:sef:csefwp:438
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    1. Attila Ambrus & Emilio Calvano & Markus Reisinger, 2016. "Either or Both Competition: A "Two-Sided" Theory of Advertising with Overlapping Viewerships," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 189-222, August.
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    14. Schmalensee Richard, 2011. "Why is Platform Pricing Generally Highly Skewed?," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(4), pages 1-13, December.
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    16. repec:rje:randje:v:37:y:2006:3:p:668-691 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:

    1. Jullien, Bruno & Sand-Zantman, Wilfried, 2021. "The Economics of Platforms: A Theory Guide for Competition Policy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    2. Simon P. Anderson & Bruno Jullien, 2015. "The advertising-financed business model in two-sided media markets," Post-Print hal-02866192, HAL.
    3. Jullien, Bruno & Pavan, Alessandro & Rysman, Marc, 2021. "Two-sided Markets, Pricing, and Network Effects," CEPR Discussion Papers 16480, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Calvano, Emilio & Polo, Michele, 2021. "Market power, competition and innovation in digital markets: A survey," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Gregor Langus & Vilen Lipatov, 2022. "Value Creation by Ad-Funded Platforms," CESifo Working Paper Series 9525, CESifo.
    6. Shekhar, Shiva, 2020. "Zero Pricing Platform Competition," MPRA Paper 99364, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Federico Boffa & Lapo Filistrucchi, 2014. "Optimal Cartel Prices in Two-Sided Markets Access," Working Papers 14-19, NET Institute.

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