Access to Audio-visual Contents, Exclusivity and Anticommons in New Media Markets

Media markets are characterized by strong peculiarities that often call for long-term exclusivity contracts between content providers and distributors or for vertical or horizontal integration. This paper analyzes and compares the economic effects of existing alternative systems of access to valuable content for new media platforms, under the lens of technological convergence and ‘network neutrality’. The analysis suggests the increasing need for a coordinated regulatory framework aimed at balancing costs and benefits of the different models in order to ensure that the development of new markets and new technologies in the age of media convergence is not hindered by “anticommons” tragedies. .