Affiliate Harold Furchtgott-Roth Cites Obstacles to Cross-Marketing Agreements between Wireless, Cable Companies
July 12, 2012
While several cable companies and Verizon Wireless have begun marketing one another’s products in certain geographic markets, there are a number of economic challenges associated with these arrangements that make them unlikely to succeed, explains Analysis Group affiliate and former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, Harold Furchtgott-Roth in the FierceWireless article “Why Verizon's cross-marketing arrangements with the cable companies won't work.” (June 27, 2012)
Apart from obvious antitrust concerns, he says, there are issues associated with the financial incentives tied to wireless distribution. “Some cable services, and a large portion of Verizon Wireless services, are sold through [unrelated] third parties [who] have no incentive to cross-market services, particularly those for which they are unlikely to be compensated,” Dr. Furchtgott-Roth explains.
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