Quote:
Originally Posted by Tod
"Monopoly - Market situation where one producer (or a group of producers acting in concert) controls supply of a good or service, and where the entry of new producers is prevented or highly restricted. Monopolist firms (in their attempt to maximize profits) keep the price high and restrict the output, and show little or no responsiveness to the needs of their customers."
|
Bolded bit especially is why VM is not and never will be a monopoly, and why the broadcast side of Sky could never be a monopoly.
Anyone can build a cable network, just plough money into it and build your network. If VM's network (like BT's) reached every home in the UK and was therefore cost prohibitive to build (due to the cost of reaching rural areas where there's limited scope to recoup costs) then it'd be a monopoly, but as it stands it only passes areas that would be deemed as financially viable to replicate.
The reason Sky is a monopoly is because the channel side of their company is highly restrictive to enter, exclusivity deals (with staggered end dates so outbidding on rights is a difficult thing to manage with making sure you get enough content to make the channels viable) being a huge part of that.