But today, this line of thinking goes, media competition is stronger, thanks to the fact that consumers have a dizzying array of new choices to turn to, including greatly expanded cable-TV offerings and Internet-based news and entertainment options.
In the late 1990's, the biggest issuers of junk bonds were rapidly expanding cable and telecommunications companies, many of which ultimately defaulted on their debts.
Almost as soon as the TCI deal closed, AT&T began looking to sell the newspaper so it could focus on expanding cable services.
The Aspers loaded Canwest with debt, which now is about 4 billion Canadian dollars, to expand cable television channel offerings and to move into publishing.
With the Dodgers, Greinke joins a team flush with cash from expanding cable television revenue and an aggressive new ownership led by Mark Walter, Stan Kasten and the Basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.
Marketing Television In Midtown Manhattan last week, lawyers were putting the final touches on a new television contract, one with far fewer hours on network television but with all the riches and promise of the expanding cable market.
On Saturday, when KCET-TV stops broadcasting PBS programming after four decades as the primary PBS outlet in Los Angeles, most programs will move to another quickly revamped public broadcasting station in Orange County, KOCE-TV, which has rebranded itself as "PBS SoCal" and scrambled to expand cable system carriage.
The reason is, largely, that they could: years of huge DVD profits and an expanding cable-television universe meant studio bosses could operate on autopilot, to a degree.
A recent report by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, shows that the average monthly rate for what the industry calls expanded basic cable service is $36.47.
The first phase of the YES Network's growth ended recently when its long fight to be carried on expanded basic cable by Cablevision was mandated by a panel of arbitrators.
