People are like "anti-monopoly laws will stop this right?" And its like have you been around lately? Disney and Fox? Microsoft and ActBliz? The warner and discovery merger in the first place? American government hasnt busted trusts in a long time
Imagining a 2x2 poli-grid of the pseudo-political alignments of the 4 variations of supporting either/or/and busting or not busting trusts and nuts.
Half a century ago, when Marx was writing Capital, free competition appeared to the overwhelming majority of economists to be a “natural law”. Official science tried, by a conspiracy of silence, to kill the works of Marx, who by a theoretical and historical analysis of capitalism had proved that free competition gives rise to the concentration of production, which, in turn, at a certain stage of development, leads to monopoly. Today, monopoly has become a fact. Economists are writing mountains of books in which they describe the diverse manifestations of monopoly, and continue to declare in chorus that “Marxism is refuted.” But facts are stubborn things, as the English proverb says, and they have to be reckoned with, whether we like it or not. The facts show that differences between capitalist countries, e.g., in the matter of protection or free trade, only give rise to insignificant variations in the form of monopolies or in the moment of their appearance; and that the rise of monopolies, as the result of the concentration of production, is a general and fundamental law of the present stage of development of capitalism.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
Who the fuck gives a shit it's not like either of those two companies were going to be producing anything worthwhile as separate companies anyway
It does matter, actually. I know most people on Lemmy don't care about sports, but bear with me.
Look at Disney's ownership of ESPN, for example. Zooming in a bit more, look at what ESPN owns, specifically to do with college football, say. They own most TV stations playing various games, they control most of the talking heads spinning 'narratives' of teams all season, various contracts with different 'divisions' in the sport on what channels they can broadcast on (SEC being the biggest, most profitable) and have several executives on the Playoffs Committee (they determine who plays in the playoffs). This all came to a head this season, when the Committee decided to omit a team from the playoffs that had an undefeated record (Florida State) in favor of a team that DID have a loss (Alabama), seemingly because that team would have a higher viewership and therefore make them more money in advertising.
This set the college football community ON FIRE. You even had articles about it popping up on CNN. Suddenly the mask was off, and ESPN clearly showed that they do not care about how the games are played or even who wins, they're going to give spots to who they view as the most profitable teams. Basically rendering the whole sport useless. They tried, on their channels, to have their talking heads spin it every which way, but the real reasons they picked who they picked were pretty obvious to see. But what could anyone do? ESPN owns everything and calls all the shots, pays just about everyone's salary.
What's also extremely heinous is that, this year, they opened up their own sports betting service. That is a huge conflict of interest, considering that they own everything else to do with most sportsball stuff.
Anyway. Rant over.
TLDR: Monopolies are a problem, no matter what industry they're in.
Good post. Bookmarking so in can use the college football argument if this comes up again.
Thanks! I tried to keep it as short as possible while still getting all the info across, so sorry if it's a lil choppy.
There's loads more detail on this specific instance that I left out, and it just gets more infuriating the more you look. Especially for the 19-24 y.o. kids on the teams that actually put their bodies and health on the line at such a young age to play the games that make these old fuckers so rich. Florida State actually lost their quarterback midway through the season due to a snapped lower leg, but they STILL carried on to be undefeated the rest of the season! That never happens! Just to be told by some old farts in board rooms that that still isn't enough to play for a championship title. They gave their spot to a team with a worse record, but would make ESPN more money. Heartbreaking.
This topic grinds my gears, and I'm not even a sports fan, my SO is.
/rant frfr
Corporate mergers are bad regardless of what it does to the entertainment actually.
Yes and now they combined their resources which means even more theme park movies.
Only if they get fully made and then shelved for tax purposes.
The more consolidated the producers are the more they can strong arm the distributors (movie theaters) and muscle out independent movie producers from having even the precious few remaining opportunities for worthwhile movies to be seen and have any return on investment.
warner bros doesn't need more ips to hoard or throw away for tax credits
At least Zaslav wont cancel Survivor, Big Brother, TAR, or The Challenge. He loves rtv.
