The Vital Role of Antitrust: Who Should Own the Means of Communication? The Vital Role of Antitrust and Other Forms of Regulation
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Description
This paper focuses on the questions of the need for government regulation of the market structure of the telecommunications industry and of whether any limits should be placed on the identity of those who own the “means of communication”—limits which might affect over-the-air broadcasters, cable television outlets, newspapers, and all others who might in the future distribute information or entertainment programming via some new technology. The answer to these questions is, of course, heavily dependent on the shape and commercial viability of existing and new competitors in the telecommunications field. Also, however, it is dependent on America's current and future view of government regulation of ownership in general, an issue which is broader than the specifics of the telecommunications industry. This paper will attempt to place the problems of the telecommunications industry in that broader context and will examine general American attitudes toward regulation of market structure. Market structure regulation comes in two forms: 1) regulation through the antitrust laws, and 2) the more specific forms of regulation engaged in by government agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission. Both methods of regulation are forms of public control of business behavior, although each involves a different institutional approach. Both methods today find themselves somewhat in disrepute. Americans are now in a love affair with laissez faire, and are filled with a renewed belief in the foresight and wisdom of private-firm decisionmaking, particularly with respect to large firms in high technology industries. This general trend is felt quite specifically in the telecommunications area, where new technology abounds and excites. This paper will suggest that, despite the current deregulatory climate, there are real problems ahead with respect to the future structure of the telecommunications industry. These are problems which this country has seen in the past, in this industry and in others, and which we should prepare to solve. Sections one and two examine the present state of the law, and its uncertain ability to deal with market structure problems generally. Section three sets out four market structure problems which have occurred in other industries, and are likely to occur in the communications industry. Section four, the final section, concludes with some suggestions for the future for government controls on ownership.
Source Publication
Law and the Television of the 80's
Source Editors/Authors
Richard Taylor, Lisa B. Dubrow, Jay Shanker
Publication Date
1983
Recommended Citation
First, Harry, "The Vital Role of Antitrust: Who Should Own the Means of Communication? The Vital Role of Antitrust and Other Forms of Regulation" (1983). Faculty Chapters. 1205.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1205
