Merger Fatigue In A Time Of Media Oligopolies

[Commentary] In the coming weeks and months, we will hear from AT&T representatives that the merger with Time Warner will provide many public benefits. But the lessons from recent history should give us pause as to the veracity of these claims. Challenging this merger may provide a crucial test case for whether the era of digital media monopolies has begun to recede. But successfully turning the tide will require tremendous grassroots energy and organizing, including educational efforts that connect the dots between people’s daily grievances with their communication services and the excesses of corporate media power.

Poor service and outrageously high bills are the costs of living under lightly regulated media oligopolies—which is the broader context for why such a merger deserves close regulatory scrutiny from the Justice Department and from the Federal Communications Commission regarding, respectively, antitrust and public interest concerns. One corporation controlling so much production and distribution of news and entertainment media could raise prices and reduce media options for millions of consumers, and it could harm the information system that supports our democracy. America’s communication networks are already plagued by unnecessary costs and poor services, and this merger would likely make things worse.

[Victor Pickard is an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication]