VotedHillary wrote:

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I don't know about the rest of you, but it scares me that Comcast is going to own one of the Big Three networks.  Are monopoly laws even enforced anymore?

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Yes, monopoly law - rather, "anti-trust" rules - are still enforced.

What is happening in this, I think, is vertical integration.  So, Comcast may not trip anti-trust [and we are yet to see how the gatekeepers rule on that ] but there is most certainly concentration of power that is going to happen.   While the spirit of the anti-trust rules is definitely to prevent such inordinate accumulation of power (against people) in the hands of a few, its words are written into the "same market" principle... and that is probably why Comcast just might get away with it.

The way the cocentration of power is calculated is called Herfindahl index (often referred to as HHI).  It is a very mathematical formula/caculation of the difference before- and projected after-acquisition marketshare of the acquiring company within the marketr.  Invariably there is more concentration - and that is the reason acquisitons take place to begin with.  When HHI goes high, it is indicative of high concentration of power. There is a cut-off point in the analysis.

Sorry, I got technical there.. This is both a macro-economics and a marketing issue in projecting the calculation of after-acquisition marketshare... and that number is typically not the sum of the prior two company market share percentages.  It can be less (as is initially) or more (as is usually and in the long-run).

Eventually the DOJ is the arbiter of whether an acquisition can or cannot go through.. and they do take a very close look at HHI.