Video On Media Monopolies: Should AT&T And Time Warner Merge?

This bite-sized video from the New York Times is an entertaining yet sobering look at media monopolies. It explains horizontal and vertical integration, the two ways that monopolies can form and take over a market segment, usually to the detriment of consumers in the long run.

Given the current potential merger between AT&T and Time Warner, which a judge is set to rule on in June, these economic basics are important for everyone to get a grip on. While in this case the tech and communications giants promise that joining their corporations would make wireless networks faster and more reliable, the merger would also consolidate America’s wireless companies to just three, which is almost certain to bump prices for access to information and communication. Even Donald Trump suggested this wasn’t a good idea.

“The question is whether one huge company plus another huge company, would turn into one enormous telecom and media company controlling so much content and the way it’s delivered to you that it could freeze out other producers and distributors who want to make you laugh, cry, and binge watch.”