This paper provides an economic analysis of recent vertical and horizontal mergers in the U.S. industry for audiovisual media content, including the AT&T-Time Warner and the Disney-Fox mergers. Using a theory-driven approach, we examine economic effects of these types of mergers on market...

Dominant or apparently dominant internet platform increasingly become subject to both antitrust investigations and further-reaching political calls for regulation. While Google is currently in the focus of the discussion, the next candidate is already on the horizon - the ubiquitous online...

The paper analyses the economics behind algorithmic search and recommender services, based upon personalized user data. Such services play a paramount role for online services such as marketplaces (e.g. Amazon), audio streaming (e.g. Spotify), video streaming (e.g. Netflix, YouTube), app stores,...

The European Commission has proposed a new regulatory tool for the governance of digital markets. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) intents to limit the market behavior of so-called gatekeeper companies to ensure contestable and fair digital markets. We review the provisions of the DMA both from a...

Der Beitrag liefert eine kritische Würdigung der geplanten europäischen Regulierung digitaler Onlinedienste - Digital Markets Act (DMA) und Digital Services Act (DAS) - aus medienökonomischer Perspektive. Dabei werden Schwerpunkte auf Gatekeeper-Effekte und die Rolle von algorithmischen Such-...

The European Commission has proposed a new regulatory tool for the governance of digital markets. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) intents to limit the market behavior of socalled gatekeeper companies to ensure contestable and fair digital markets. We review the provisions of the DMA both from a...

We review the economics of superstars, originally developed for stars in traditional media, and discuss whether they are applicable for the (allegedly) novel phenomenon of stars in social media (influencer, micro-celebrities). Moreover, we analyse potentially new factors for creating social...

This essay discusses two immanent challenges for competition policy in online e-commerce markets: the platform character and the role of personalized data. Both phenomena are briefly described from an economic perspective (section 2 and 3) with a focus on how they affect and change competition...

The world of audiovisual online markets is rapidly changing. Not long ago, it was dominated by linear television, transmitted terrestrially, through cable networks or via satel-lite. Recently, streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime and others have emerged as new suppliers of...

Die 10. Novelle des Gesetzes gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen („GWB-Digitalisierungsgesetz„) soll die deutschen Wettbewerbsregeln so reformieren, dass sie einen geeigneten Ordnungsrahmen für eine zunehmend digitalisierte Wirtschaft darstellen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag diskutieren wir den...