The companies that beam, or stream, your favorite shows onto your screens, and how much they can get away with charging you, attract a lot of scrutiny when they start racking up acquisitions and cornering the marketplace. What keeps them in check are antitrust laws. “Unreasonable curbs on competition are, in theory, at least, criminal.” Too much control or market share can happen in two ways. The first is horizontal integration. If one studio gains monopoly power by buying up lots of other studios, and the resulting company squeezes out the competition across an industry, or jacks up prices for consumers, it could be violating antitrust laws. The second way is vertical integration of the supply chain. In the late 1940s, the government actually went in and busted up the Hollywood studio system because a few behemoths owned almost all the studios, and the theaters, and they controlled the distribution rights to almost all the films. “Hello, Mr. Aylesworth. How are you?” That made it extremely difficult for other companies in the business of making, or selling, or showing movies. If we look at today’s digital landscape, that would be like if an internet provider also owns the studios that make the shows and the channels, premium networks or streaming platforms. And in some cases, maybe even the device you watch on. Kind of like, say, Apple or Amazon. The government usually leaves these kinds of companies alone if the growth happens organically, through ingenuity. But when a company grows through mergers and acquisitions, that can raise a red flag. Historically there have been fewer challenges to vertical integration up and down the supply chain, than across industries. But when AT&T decided it wanted to merge with Time Warner, the Department of Justice decided to challenge the move. “Your pricing is going to go up. I don’t think it’s a good deal for the country.” The companies say they need to make this deal to compete with the Amazons and Apples of the world. The question is whether one huge company plus another huge company would turn into one new enormous telecom and media company controlling so much content, and the way it’s delivered to you that it could charge consumers more and squeeze out other producers, suppliers or distributors who want to make you laugh, cry and binge-watch.