While this is all true, you still have to put a lot of blame on the consumer. Companies go where the money is, and that's catering to the customer's needs and wants. You can buy up all the competition, but that don't mean shyt if the consumers don't want it. No one is forcing people to buy those products or use any of those services.
You effectively are forcing people when you limit their options by buying any potential competition and lobbying government to ban any international competition.
If you're an artist and the industry standard is Adobe, you have to use Adobe software. They know you have to use them so they switch from an ownership model to a subscription model. You have to keep paying them so you can work.
If the most affordable way to watch TV is through a streaming service, they can raise the price of the subscription and put ads in it. Amazon literally did this with prime video. Most people aren't savvy enough to use piracy to watch what they want.
The whole point is to destroy any alternatives, corner the market and ensure that TV= the one streaming service that has crushed all the others. Video editing software=the one video editing software that's available because the rest have been destroyed.
And the new FTC chair does not care about breaking up Monopolies, so these companies will continue to destroy competition and limit your choice until you have to just not watch TV, not play videogames, not listen to music, etc. Because every time you try you'll be fed slop riddled with ads you can't skip unless you subscribe to a premium, more expensive tier.
Whats likely to happen is that these companies will collapse because they aren't making enough profit, their international equivalents are providing better value in the international market and we will have to start from scratch.
think imma retire from the internet
