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Readers React: Let the market sort out TV winners and losers

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To the editor: HBO and CBS recently announced plans to cut out the cable middleman and sell directly to the public. These deals pit them against traditional cable operators, which have bet big that consumers prefer a larger, “aggregated” bundle of programming and other services. (“Moves by HBO, CBS could be tipping point for a la carte pricing,” Oct. 16)

But while this content middleman (“aggregator”) role is under siege, the very same companies are being accused of being monopolistic “gatekeepers” by industry critics. The Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are reviewing the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal and asking if there is real competition for consumers’ eyeballs.

Well, right on cue, HBO decides to compete with the “aggregators” after decades of symbiosis, proving that competitive programming has many routes from soundstage to screen.

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In fact, the most active competition in the digital space today is not for market share but for business models. Do consumers want large packages of services, or will the stand-alone approach win out? Do they value the active management of networks, like they get from mobile, or a free-for-all, as they do with a land line?

“Winter is coming” for some of these business models, and Washington should step back and let competition tell us which.

Ev Ehrlich, Washington

The writer, president of the economics consulting firm ESC Co., was undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion

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