ABSTRACT
This chapter is generally about how economic forces determine market outcomes in media industries, especially the electronic media. Of course, that is a very broad subject, and our focus is on certain aspects of it. Among the main questions we ask: How do market structure (e.g., competition versus monopoly) and the economic system of support (e.g., advertising versus direct payment) affect the prices, audience sizes, and especially the diversity, quality, and certain other content characteristics ofmedia products? How do the costs and technologies of media production and distribution affect these outcomes?
