Posted on 10/08/2003 2:37:42 AM PDT by HAL9000
He is not a happy camper today.
Bronfman: NBC bad for Vivendi - Move would be ‘exactly the wrong outcome’ for shareholders
Then you have nothing to worry about; Vivendi's share of the new company is only going to be somewhere in the mid-20s, and they're probably going to take the money and run in 2006 anyway.
I am as right wing as you can get but I get 3 hours of Rush and then get another 3 hours of Sean Hannity doing his version of Rush's show. Hannity (and others) just repeat issue that Rush just covered for the most part.
You also don't get competition in the format because instead of competition you have segmentation. The giant consolidating media company will have one news channel, one easy listening channel, one rock channel, one talk channel, etc. and they fragment and segment the market so they don't directly compete. So ratings don't matter anymore like they used to.
Lots of things wrong with consolidation and that was some of it, as far as I can recon.
It is why it is an issue that both sides of the political spectrum find common ground. For example the NRA is against consolidation.
YES, at the grassroots most of us aggree, which is why it irks me that up at the top decisions are made in favor of consolidation.
Guess which party is doing the dirty work right now: the FCC vote was split down party lines 3-2 with Michael Powell, the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell as chair breaking the tie. If there where a democrat chair there, they might be doing the same thing the other way around. Still it's no good to say "we can be crooked, because look they're crooked."
Yes. AT&T began with a state enforced monopoly, much as local cable companies do. But see what happens? Over time, people find a way around monopolies and a way to force competition. Sattelite TV is eating into cable customer base. That is why I don't particularly fear these consolidations -- because competition will figure it out, come up with something better and poof, no more monopoly.
It's still something to worry about with things from Clear Channel to Mic$oft's Digital Rights Management.
Again, these things won't last. In twenty years, their role in society, if they have one will be completely different. In the meantime, they are providing something people desire at a price they are willing to pay. And that's a good thing.
But private enterprise is not power. It is a mutually agreed to exchange of value. I find nothing frightening about that.
Consolidation of the press is bad.
Consolidation of press is temporary and not even all that important. Our sources of information keep increasing, not decreasing.
It doesn't matter. Trying to create a monopoly is like squeezing a balloon: you can grasp one part, but it just pops out somewhere else. Already there is XSIM, the sattelite radio, and internet radio. The more these guys squeeze, the more they don't expect will pop out.
And why are you just focusing on radio? It's about getting information and entertainment and our sources of that keep expanding, not contracting.
Monopoly power as you are identifying it is vastly overrated.
Owning all the broadcast rights for the US, the cable networks, the satelites, and all the local newspapers would give you a power. Is it enough power that nobody could ever chalenge it and take it away? Maybe/maybe not. I don't want to find out the hard way. My guess is it would give you power that you could abuse a little bit indefinately or a lot at once.
Our sources of information keep increasing, not decreasing.
True, though sometimes it seems our sources of disinformation grow faster than our sources of information. Look at all the unverifiable crap on the web.
Sorry, I don't want to blow this out of proportion. I see a bunch of little battles being fought, some of which we can maybe afford to loose. We just shouldn't loose them all.
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