Business Day reports (MultiChoice calls for Netflix to be regulated, July 12) that MultiChoice is blaming its demise on its main competitor, the online streaming service Netflix, and that for MultiChoice to be saved, Netflix too must be regulated. Cronyism happens when existing, usually large, firms go to the government to have their competitors regulated out of the market. The existing firms usually have the resources to comply with regulations, but know their smaller competitors do not. These firms can no longer compete on quality of service or affordability, and thus use the force of the state to get what they want. In a free market, firms come and go. No firm is too big to fail: if it no longer pleases its consumers and they go elsewhere, the firm goes under. Its continued existence depends entirely on the will of the people, making the free market the most democratic forum imaginable. Don’t punish Netflix for giving the sovereign consumers exactly what they want. When regulatio...
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