Network Neutrality and Digital Dialogic Communication by Alison N. Novak Melinda Sebastian

Author:Alison N. Novak, Melinda Sebastian [Alison N. Novak, Melinda Sebastian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367606787
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox Inc.

While Comcast’s battles for and against network neutrality were largely public, other organizations held more tangential and quieter reflections on the policy. The Walt Disney Company was one organization with seemingly large stakes in the policy decisions which developed rapidly toward the end of 2017. After a December 2017 $52 billion deal to take control of 21st Century Fox was approved, the company now held “massive leverage over the content industry,” which The Verge journalists argued could be used to compete with large ISPs who own their own content (such as Comcast): “Because Disney now owns so much content, other media companies have greater incentive to consolidate to improve their bargaining positions.”28 The Disney/21st Century Fox merger not only gave Disney more media power but also pushed ISPs to consolidate their own power and perhaps attempt to purchase other media content producers. This starts a chain of vertical integration, meaning ISPs attempt to integrate production into their dissemination services to take advantage of their ability to limit customer access.

The Walt Disney Company case study exemplifies a somewhat problematic part of network neutrality debates: that most customers are locked into a relationship with one or two specific ISPs. Most customers have limited choice in their ISP, and in many regions around the world, only one ISP is available. The limited ISP competition motivates content organizations to fulfill any demands from the ISP in order to maintain customer access. Content organizations that refuse to pay for internet fast lanes (or who are unable to do so) lose access to valuable customers. Thus, it is not only advantageous for ISPs to begin to acquire content organizations (to streamline this access), it is also advantageous for the content organizations.

The Boston Globe reported that a major motivation for the Disney merger included 2018 plans to start two streaming services to compete with the success of Netflix.29 The merger allows Disney to add 21st Century Fox titles to its digital library and also control the production of future 21st Century Fox shows and films.30 Importantly, this would also give Disney control of Hulu, another Netflix competitor with ties to ISP Comcast. Adweek adds that this relationship is appealing for advertisers who want to spend marketing budgets on ISP-owned streaming services “in order to guarantee a lag-free ad experience.”31

Despite this clear strategic move as Disney positions itself within the new network neutrality free era, the organization failed to explicitly take a stance on the policy through a series of question and answer sessions hosted by CEO Bob Iger.32 While on the surface, Iger reiterated that the company would not take an official stance, his later statements in the same session demonstrated the organization’s relationship to the policy: “We’ve never really believed net neutrality is really an issue for us and we continue to believe that’s the case, and with this acquisition, we believe that to be even more of the case.”33 His statement illustrates that the merger can impact the organization’s ability to conduct business in the post-network neutrality era.

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