This book considers whether arrangements where one entity owns
programming networks as well as distribution systems for cable
television reduce the variety of available
programming, limit outside competition, or have other negative consequences.
David Waterman is associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington. Andrew A. Weiss is professor of economics at the University of Southern California.
Vertical ownership ties between cable TV programming suppliers--such as CNN, HBO, and the Discovery Channel--and multiple cable television system operators--such as Time Warner and TCI--have become extensive. Many claim that such ownership ties reduce programming diversity, restrict entry of
competitors to cable--such as local telephone exchange carriers or direct broadcast satellites--or have other socially undesirable effects. In response to those claims, several provisions of the 1992 Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 restrict the behavior of vertically integrated cable firms and, in some cases, the behavior of vertically integrated competitors to cable.