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Disney Oligopoly: The Market Structure Of Walt Disney

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Market Structure - Oligopoly Oligopoly is a market structure whereby a few number of firms owns a lion’s share in the market. This market structure is similar to monopoly, except that instead of one firm, two or more firms have control in the market. In an oligopoly, there are no upper limits to the number of firms, but the number must be nadir enough that the operations of one firm remarkably influence and affects the others (Investopedia, 2003). The Walt Disney Company is categorized under an oligopoly market structure. Participation of very few firms in this market is the cause for Disney to be an oligopoly. Some of Disney’s major competitors include News Corporation (NWS), Time Warner (TWX), DreamWorks Animation SKG (DWA), and Viacom (VIA), who directly compete with Disney in myriad business lines. As there are only a few number of firms, competitive pricing does not exist and consumers have limited choices to choose from. Walt Disney Company is large enough to affect the market. Hence, the firm is a price maker and changes prices quite frequently to maximize profits. In spite of that, barriers to entry in an oligopoly market are high. The prime barriers are economies of scale, access to costly and sophisticated technology, patents and tactical measures by existing dominating firms devised to hinder new firms from entering the market. In addition, other sources of barriers include government regulation favoring incumbent firms making it difficult for nascent firms to
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