(Variety) - WGA Report: Disney, Amazon, and Netflix Are the ‘New Gatekeepers’ of Media -- (edited)
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Aug 17 '23, 11:29
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By Gene Maddaus
The Writers Guild of America issued a report on Thursday calling Netflix, Amazon and Disney the “new gatekeepers” of the media business, and calling for antitrust regulators to prevent consolidation in the streaming marketplace.
The report argues that Netflix, Amazon and Disney have amassed collective market power that has driven down wages and limited viewer choice. The guild also argues that the companies have shown they will “abuse a position of dominance” to harm their competitors and that further consolidation will result in fewer writers able to make a living.
“Any mergers in media and entertainment involving significant streaming players should be blocked, including acquisitions of smaller or potential competitors,” the union argues.
The report comes as the WGA strike reaches its 108th day with no signs that a deal is imminent. The guild responded on Tuesday to the latest proposal from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but sources have said that the two sides remain far apart on a range of key issues, including a TV staffing minimum, weekly pay for screenwriters, and a viewership-based streaming residual.
The WGA has issued reports and given testimony about antitrust issues in the past. In December 2021, the guild published a report that blasted five media mergers — including AT&T-Time Warner, Comcast-NBCUniversal, and Disney-Fox — as examples of failed antitrust enforcement.
The latest report more focuses more on Netflix and Amazon than the previous versions have. The report argues that Netflix used to be an innovative competitor, but has since become “a powerful incumbent focused on raising prices, vertically integrating, and exerting its dominance over workers.”
The WGA also argues that Amazon has engaged in predatory pricing and other anti-competitive practices to establish a platform monopoly, and that its acquisition of MGM indicates it plans to “bring its platform monopoly playbook to dominate media.”
The report also faults Disney for raising prices and reducing its feature film output, as well as engaging in aggressive vertical integration.
“Each is now taking anti-competitive vertical integration to an extreme, turning its streaming service into a walled garden for self-produced content — a model built for and dependent on restricting the availability of independent content from competing producers, underpaying creators, and, above all, making future consolidation the name of the industry game.”
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