What does it say, for instance, about "Shanti"'s network, the state-owned Doordarshan, once a monopoly delivering farm reports to a captive audience but now forced to compete with fifty or so other channels, some offering choice American fare?
Indeed, absent other measures, most of the £400m worth of commercial public service broadcasting will effectively bleed out of the system, leaving the BBC as an isolated, monopoly deliverer of public service broadcasting.
Regulations drawn up by Secretary Ickes at the end of last month require the deposit of a huge bond before any helium, on which the United States has a monopoly, is delivered.
Nielsen, owned by VNU, enjoys a monopoly in delivering ratings information, which determines how an estimated $40 billion in television advertising revenue is spent each year.
The transaction, worth $3.9 billion, represents a further unwinding of what was once a mammoth German state monopoly that delivered letters, connected telephone calls and provided basic banking services.
The transaction, worth $3.9 billion, marks a further unwinding of what was once a mammoth German state monopoly that delivered letters, connected telephone calls and provided basic banking services.
Shoehorning private markets into a natural monopoly has delivered fragmentation, rock-bottom investment, annual costs of £1.2bn, the most expensive train fares in Europe, and more than double the level of state subsidy than under British Rail.
Today 95% of domestic letters (where Deutsche Post still enjoys a monopoly) are delivered the next day, up from around 80% in 1990.
In Europe, postal services also face the prospect of more competition, since from 2011 all remaining monopolies on delivering letters will end.
Instead we have to rely on telecommunications monopolies who deliver slow broadband speeds and make us pay whatever they say we have to pay.
