Co-opetition of TV broadcasters in online video markets : a winning strategy?

This article focuses on TV broadcasters adopting co-opetition strategies for launching online video services. It is claimed that the emergence of online video platforms like YouTube and Netflix is driving TV broadcasters to collaborate with their closest competitors to reduce costs and reach the necessary scale in the global marketplace. The article sheds light on online video platforms that were developed following a co-opetition strategy (Hulu and YouView). The establishment of joint ventures in online video, however, has been scrutinised by competition authorities which fear that collaboration between close competitors lessens rivalry and reduces consumer choice. Therefore, several co-opetition projects (among others BBC’s Kangaroo and Germany’s Gold) have been prohibited by competition authorities

(De)convergence in TV: a comparative analysis of the development of Smart TV

Against the backdrop of media convergence, Smart TVs are developing rapidly in large parts of the world. Smart TV refers to the integration of broadband Internet and social media features into TV sets. From a media business perspective, the proliferation of Smart TV services may put pressure on the market structure of the TV landscape, and urge for new business models in order to capture the dynamics of media convergence. By means of a comparative analysis in four European markets (Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom), the development of Smart TV is sketched in terms of viewing patterns, business models and standardization. The conclusion is that national TV markets are evolving quite differently, so that service providers must adapt their marketing strategies to reflect local market conditions. Hence, the success of Smart TV ultimately depends on the local package of value-added services and the amount of strategic partnerships with content owners, TV broadcasters and pay-TV operators

If you won't pay them, buy them: Merger mania in distribution and content markets

Structural changes in TV markets are resulting in carriage disputes that have spread from the United States to Europe. A carriage dispute refers to a disagreement between a pay-TV operator and a broadcaster over the right to ‘carry’ a broadcaster’s channel. TV broadcasters are demanding ever increasing payments from pay-TV operators that complain about lower-profit margins due to spiralling programming costs. This article discusses vertical mergers between distributors and broadcasters as a possible way to reduce retransmission payments and to secure cheap and privileged access to programming in today’s hypercompetitive video markets

Penalizing Consumers for Saving Electricity

In response to climate change, many electric utilities introduce pricing schemes to induce their customers to consume less electricity. When a significant portion of the consumer population finds it more costly to economize electricity, one would expect utilities to offer incentives in return for lower usage of electricity. The model put forward in this paper enhances understanding of why a typical electric utility may instead prefer to increase prices, in so doing discriminating against environmentally conscious customers. This result holds even when the utility is charged for its greenhouse gas emissions. But in this case the price increase is sufficiently small to induce energy savings also from customers for whom there is a net cost in doing so.pricing structure, environment, electricity, consumer switching costs

Product innovation when consumers have switching costs

Economists have long recognized that in free markets, incentives to innovate will be diluted unless some factors grant innovators with a temporary monopoly. Patenting is the most cited factor in the economic literature. This survey concentrates on another factor that confers innovators with first-mover advantage over their competitors, namely consumer switching costs, whereby a consumer makes an investment specific to her current seller, that must be duplicated for any new seller. In this survey, we list several components of switching costs that are relevant as regards to firm innovation behaviour. The aim of this classification is twofold. First, consumer switching cost theory has matured to the point that some classification of switching costs for both understanding innovative firm behaviour and building policy-oriented models is necessary. Second, the classification included in this paper addresses the confusion that has been existing so far regarding the distinction between ‘good’ or ‘bad’ switching costs, perceived or paid switching costs, and between switching and search costs. This paper then surveys the existing literature on the effect of switching costs on product innovation by firms and the way they compete for consumers. We also raise several important regulation and competition policy questions, using examples from the real world.Consumer switching costs; Search costs; Product innovation; Competition policy; Economic methodology

Holomorphic Koszul-Brylinski Homology

In this note, we study the Koszul-Brylinski homology of holomorphic Poisson manifolds. We show that it is isomorphic to the cohomology of a certain smooth complex Lie algebroid with values in the Evens-Lu-Weinstein duality module. As a consequence, we prove that the Evens-Lu-Weinstein pairing on Koszul-Brylinski homology is nondegenerate. Finally we compute the Koszul-Brylinski homology for Poisson structures on \CP^1\times\CP^1.Comment: 14 page

On the stability of recursive least squares in the Gauss-Markov model

This exercice provides all eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the autoregressive matrix found in classical recursive least square theory.Linear Regression Model, Recursive Least Squares

The divine sympathy: an essay on kenotic Christology

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