The Death of the Comcast Deal

Sure, they might be near-monopolies in many parts of the country, but the deal was simply about linking up regional monopolies, not increasing them.

.. the Justice Department decided, conceptually, to turn things around, and in economic jargon, to look at the other side of the “two-sided market.”

.. Stated differently, anyone who wants to reach one of Comcast’s customers—like Netflix delivering a film or Spotify delivering a song—has to go through it, and it alone. Looking at the deal this way forced the Justice Department to think about Comcast as something much more than just a regional cable company.