ABSTRACT
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has been hailed as the harbinger of a new era of expanded competition that will bring faster technical advances, greater consumer choice and more economical, efficient services. The Telecommunications Act recognizes that individual communications, like phone calls and faxes, no longer exist in a separate universe from mass media. Companies engage in joint ventures that permit them to pool capital, spread risk, share information, acquire talent and expertise, and explore unfamiliar markets. Media organizations that began with vehicles intended to reach “everybody” have diversified into channels that provide advertisers with narrowly targeted audiences. Under the new Telecommunications Act, the telephone companies, which have not heretofore been in the mass media business, will quickly emerge as major gatekeepers of content. Media mergers should arouse far less apprehension if control over content were separated from control over the channels of distribution, which properly should be common carriers.
