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part 2
Chapter 6
Market structure
and the leisure
sector
Part 1 of the book introduced the notion of market structure, and outlined its importance in
enabling an allocation of resources that is good for society. It is important to see how this
works in practice, and this chapter uses a number of case studies in order to evaluate how
market structure has influenced the efficiency of resource allocation in the leisure sector.

Learning outcomes
After studying this chapter, you should:
➤ be familiar with the way in which market structure affects the efficiency of resource
allocation in sections of the leisure sector
➤ understand the way in which the package holiday market operates as an oligopoly
➤ appreciate that firms in the package holiday business may face the threat of new entry
from firms using the internet, thus affecting the contestability of the market
➤ be familiar with the way in which the market for television broadcasting has evolved over
time, from monopoly to duopoly to oligopoly, becoming more competitive as technology
has changed
➤ be aware of the importance of market structure in the market for spectator sports
➤ understand developments in the market for air travel, and the impact of the low-cost
airlines
➤ appreciate the conditions under which price discrimination can be utilised by a firm in
order to increase its profits
➤ be familiar with the way in which the theory of monopolistic competition can help in
understanding the leisure sector

The market for package holidays in the UK

The market for package holidays is big business. In 2006, UK residents made 45.3
million holiday visits abroad, of which package holidays made up a large proportion.
This represents a major change in habits over recent decades — in 1971, the number
of holiday visits abroad was just 6.7 million. To what extent does the market operate

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efficiently? In order to evaluate efficiency, economic analysis suggests that a starting
point is to examine the market structure.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is an organisation that acts as a trade
association for tour operators and travel agents in the UK. In early 2006, ABTA
covered more than 6,000 travel agency offices and more than 1,000 tour operators.
According to the ABTA website, between them, these accounted for 85% of UK-sold
holidays.

Superficially, the fact that there are more than 6,000 travel agency offices seems to
suggest a competitive market, but this is misleading, as it is not only the number of
offices that is important, but also the number of firms in the market, and the distri-
bution of the business between them. ABTA’s membership comprises about 1,722
individual member companies, but the four largest control a significant part of the
market. These are Thomson, Thomas Cook, My Travel and First Choice.

With just four major operators in the market, it would be classified as an oligopoly.
If the firms were to collude together in order to exploit their market power, this could
have an adverse effect on allocative efficiency. A monopolist attempting to maximise
profits would restrict output and raise price, thus pushing the market away from the
point at which price is equal to marginal cost. However, the question is whether the
firms do collude in this way, or whether there are other forces within the market that
constrain or prevent them from exploiting their position.

One way in which firms in a market may be constrained is through the direct effects
of regulation. The market for foreign package holidays has been investigated in the
past by the Monopoly and Mergers Commission (now the Competition Commission).
Investigations took place in the mid-1980s (reporting in 1986), and again in the late
1990s, with a referral to the commission taking place in 1996. The 1986 report inves-
tigated allegations of what was, in effect, resale price maintenance. Resale price main-
tenance is where the producer of a good dictates the price at which it should be sold

Thomas Cook is one of the four big companies that control the travel market

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in the retail market — a practice that has been illegal for many years. The commis-
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sion concluded that this was against the public interest, and outlawed the practice.

In the later investigation, the commission noted that at the time the largest three
operators in the market accounted for around 50% of all foreign package holidays
sold in 1996. In its report, the commission expressed concern about the degree of
vertical integration in the market, particularly given that some of the ownership
linkages between firms were not made clear to customers. Vertical integration is
where a firm is involved in different stages of the production of a good or service. An
example is that of First Choice Holidays. The commission pointed out that this firm
was not only a tour operator, but also an airline (Air 2000), and for a period was also
in a strategic alliance with Thomas Cook (travel agent). Consumers were not always
aware that they were dealing with a firm that was involved at these different stages
of the production process, which can affect the profit margins on particular holiday
packages. However, while recommending greater transparency in the market, the
commission did not condemn the operators outright. It did make a number of recom-
mendations about certain practices, such as tying discounts to the purchase of
insurance. But the commission concluded that ‘we would characterise the travel
trade as at present broadly competitive, and as having served the consumer well’.

The threat of investigation by the competition authorities may be one way of

ensuring that operators in a market do not abuse their market position, but are there
are other forces at work that might influence firms? And how else might a judgement
be reached as to the intensity of competition in a market?

One of the problems in evaluating a market is that, in general, it is not possible to

observe marginal cost, so that it is not possible to check whether price is being set
above marginal cost. An alternative might be to look at profits, and ask whether firms
in a market seem to be making excessive profits. In the case of the travel companies,
recent experience may not help in this respect. The substantial reduction in demand
for foreign holidays following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the USA
created difficulties for many of the tour operators and travel agents, many of which
posted sharp reductions in profits, or even losses. But this is not conclusive evidence
that firms were not abusing their market power; it might just be a process of adjust-
ment to lower demand for their products.

Perhaps more relevant is to examine the extent to which the market may be regarded
as contestable. In other words, to what extent can the existing operators in the
market rely on barriers to entry to protect them from hit-and-run entry, or to what
extent is it possible for new firms to enter the market? If the market is contestable and
open to entry by new firms, then it would not be possible for the existing firms to set
prices at a level above average cost, as this would attract new competition.

The growth of the internet may be the key factor that determines the intensity of
competition in the travel industry. The growing ability of consumers to by-pass the
local travel agent by making their own bookings online suggests that the travel
market is highly contestable. It is now possible for a potential holidaymaker to find
their flights, hotel accommodation, car rentals or hotel transfers from their PCs. This

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can be done either by booking direct with airlines and hotels, or by using one of the
growing number of online firms, such as Expedia, the world’s largest online travel agent.

The travel agents have thus had to respond

to these new online entrants to their market.
They have done so partly by themselves
going online, and developing their own
websites and online sales. They have also

PHOTODISC/CADMIUM
responded by looking for niche markets,
offering specialist advice on long-haul
holidays, adventure trips or skiing packages.

The intensity of this competition is likely to

be beneficial for consumers in terms of the Offering specialist advice on skiing
packages — a niche market for travel agents
prices that can be obtained for package
holidays. Inevitably, there may also be dangers. For example, it may be that online
purchase of the separate components of a holiday is more risky than buying from a
travel agent backed by the code of conduct now issued by ABTA. Or it may be that
the online companies themselves will go through a process of merger, acquisition and
increasing concentration that may lead at some point to market power.

Exercise 6.1
Discuss the extent to which the growth of online sales of package holidays is influencing
the range of destinations and variety of holidays on offer. Do you think that more
regulation of online marketing is needed in order to protect consumer interests?

Television broadcasting
According to the 2005 Time Use Survey, watching either television or DVD/video
occupies more than half of people’s leisure time in the UK (see Figure 5.18). It is thus
important to ensure that television broadcasting is being provided in an efficient
manner. Again, whether this is the case depends partly on the market structure in
the television broadcasting sector, which is likely to influence the behaviour of the
enterprises engaged in this activity.

There are other aspects of broadcasting that affect the efficiency of the market.
Indeed, there are three areas of potential market failure in the sector. A tendency to
concentration (and hence imperfect competition) is one of these, but in addition,
broadcasting has some aspects of a public good, and there may also be some merit
good arguments.

Television broadcasting may be regarded as a public good because there is an extent

to which it is non-rivalrous and non-exclusive. When a programme is broadcast,
anyone with a television receiver can pick up the signal, so it is difficult to exclude
people from consuming the good. Furthermore, if one person watches the

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programme, this does not reduce the amount of it available for others to watch. You
chapter 6
will remember from AS Economics, Chapter 7 that these characteristics mean that
public goods are under-provided in the absence of some form of government inter-
vention. Partly for this reason, there has been government intervention in television
broadcasting ever since transmissions first began. The BBC derives much of its
income from the licence fee, which is one way of ensuring that people pay for the
programmes that they watch. The situation has changed with technology in recent
years, making it possible to exclude people from receiving some channels, and
enabling firms to charge for particular programmes.

There is a view that television broadcasting has merit good characteristics, as it is

believed that viewing habits can influence behaviour. Watching educational
programmes may bring beneficial spillover effects, whereas watching violent
dramas may have the opposite effect. This argument has been used to justify govern-
ment intervention to influence the content of programmes that are broadcast.

In terms of market structure, television broadcasting began as a monopoly (when only

one BBC channel was available). ITV was granted a licence to broadcast in 1955,
being funded through advertising revenue, so the market became a duopoly. As more
terrestrial channels were launched, the market evolved into an oligopoly. The cost
structure of television broadcasting encourages a
relatively high degree of concentration. This is
because the ratio of fixed to variable costs is very
high, which in turn means that there are substan-
tial economies of scale. The major costs arise in
establishing the network of transmitters, and in
making the programmes. The marginal cost
entailed in transmitting the programmes is very
small compared to these fixed costs.

How might the resulting market power be exploited

by the firms involved? After all, the BBC does not
control the size of its licence fee, and the commer-
cial channels do not charge their customers
directly. A danger of lack of competition is that
firms may cut their costs, and thus may produce
low-quality programmes, or only put out populist
programmes that will attract audiences, and thus
advertising revenue. But it might not provide the Liz Barker presenting the BBC’s
sorts of programme that the authorities would long-standing children’s programme,
regard as meritorious. Blue Peter

The so-called digital revolution has made it possible for many other channels to
become established, some of them available only on a subscription basis. This has
affected the barriers to entry, and enabled the market to be more contestable than
before. In the UK, there are now more than 300 channels available. Some of these
channels cater for niche markets, such as cookery, comedy or home improvement.

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Issues arising from the merit good argument remain, and clearly the authorities have
a greater challenge to face in ensuring that what they see as an appropriate balance
of programmes is broadcast, now that there are so many channels to deal with. As
with any appeal to a merit good argument, there are bound to be differences between
politicians and others about the extent to which the authorities should override
consumer preferences.

The way that technology has developed to enable broadcasts to be restricted to

subscribers or paying customers has enabled a number of new developments in this
market. In particular, there are segments of the market where consumers are clearly
prepared to pay a premium in order to view particular programmes. One obvious
example of such a market segment is in sporting events, such as Premiership football
and test cricket. These examples are discussed in the next section.

Exercise 6.2
Discuss the extent to which the authorities are justified in intervening to influence the
sorts of programme that are being broadcast.

Spectator sports
Another important form of leisure activity is watching sport. This takes a wide variety
of forms. Parents watch their children playing sport at the local sports centre, people
attend sporting events, and there is plenty of ‘live’ sports action on television, both
on the terrestrial channels and on specialist subscription channels such as Sky
Sports.

As far as professional sporting events are concerned, there is some interlinkage

between the markets. Ever since football matches were first televised, it has been
argued that matches should not be shown ‘live’ at the traditional match time of
Saturday at 3 p.m., as this was thought to affect attendance at the grounds. For
Premiership and Championship clubs, gate receipts remain an important source of
income, although television revenues have also become increasingly important in
recent years. A lot of attention has been devoted to the earnings that footballers
command in the Premiership. This issue is taken up in Chapter 7 (see page 110).

In terms of market structure, the way that the rights to televising events have become
concentrated is an especially crucial area. In particular, BSkyB’s position in this
market has attracted considerable attention in relation to holding rights to televise
live sporting events such as football and cricket. An important question is the extent
to which BSkyB has monopoly power, and the extent to which it is able to exploit that
market power at the expense of the viewers.

There is a specified list of events that are guaranteed to be shown on free-to-air

terrestrial channels. This list includes the Olympics, the World Cup (football), the FA
Cup Final, the Grand National and Wimbledon.

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Test cricket was delisted in 1998 after lobbying from the England and Wales Cricket
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Board (ECB), which was keen to raise funds for investment. This enabled BSkyB to bid
for exclusive rights to domestic test matches, in a deal that would remove cricket
from the terrestrial channels from 2006 to 2009. A further review of the list was
promised — but not until the switch-over to digital television has been completed.

Premiership football had fallen prey to Sky at a much earlier date. Sky won the rights
to live Premiership football in 1992, and maintained its position until an auction that
was held in May 2006. The auction was held following intervention by the European
Commission, which had ruled that BSkyB’s dominance of live Premiership football was
acting against consumer interests. In the auction, six packages of matches were sold
separately, four of which were bought by BSkyB, and the remaining two by the Irish
pay-TV broadcaster Setanta. Within a week of the auction, BSkyB and Setanta reached
a deal in respect of the pubs-and-clubs segment of the market. Under this agreement,
Sky’s corporate customers would get Setanta’s sports channels bundled in to their
monthly subscription. It would seem that monopoly had been replaced by a duopoly.

BSkyB’s moves in these various sports

markets were strategic, aiming to build up
the number of subscribers by gaining
control of these key market segments.
From the perspective of BSkyB, this may be
seen as an attempt to gain and consolidate
entry into the television broadcasting
market, which until the advent of satellite
broadcasting had been an oligopoly
controlled by the terrestrial channels via
licensing agreements. Only by reaching a
critical mass of subscribers would BSkyB The satellite station BSkyB gained a monopoly
be able to generate sufficient advertising in the supply of certain televised live football
revenue to become profitable. and cricket matches

Another way of viewing the market situation is that the Premier League was a
monopsony seller of the rights to live football — and the ECB of the rights to televise
test cricket. By opening up to an auction and selling to the highest bidder, the Premier
League gained funds to distribute to the Premiership clubs, and the ECB gained funds
to invest in cricket.

The evaluation of the effect of market structure in this situation is tricky. It could be
argued that BSkyB has been able to use its market power to charge a high price to
consumers for watching live football on television. However, if these matches were
to be available on free-to-air television, it could be argued that this would damage
match attendance and leave the football clubs struggling for revenue. The
monopsony position of the Premier League has enabled it to channel revenue to the
clubs, making the Premiership one of the richest leagues in the world. Television
revenues and audiences may be even more important in the case of test cricket.

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The market situation was the subject of investigation by the UK’s Competition
Commission, which became involved in 1998 when BSkyB’s proposed acquisition of
Manchester United was referred by the secretary of state for trade and industry. The
acquisition was prohibited on the grounds that it would reinforce the trend towards
inequality of wealth between football clubs, and would give BSkyB additional
influence over Premier League decisions relating to the organisation of football.
However, this did not break the monopoly that BSkyB had over live Premiership
broadcasts at that time.

After this, the European Commission became involved, and argued that BSkyB’s
exclusive right to televise live matches was in violation of European competition
rules, as it was ‘not in the interest of competition in the broadcasting market or the
fans’. At the time, the Premier League agreed that after 2006 the tendering process
would ensure that there were at least two television broadcasters of live Premiership
matches. The commission intervened again in 2005 when it seemed that the
Premier League was delaying matters, and the auction finally took place in April
2006.

Exercise 6.3
One advantage of the system that allowed BSkyB to gain a monopoly in the supply of
televised live football and cricket matches is that this brought money into the respective
sports, enabling investment in football clubs and cricket at grass-roots level. Discuss the
extent to which consumers have benefited from satellite broadcasting of sporting
activities.

The low-cost airlines

The case study of the low-cost airlines is an interesting example of the way in which
intensified competition in a market can affect the operation of markets. As this
example is also pertinent in examining the transport sector, this case study appears
in Chapter 10. You will find it on pages 170–173.

Monopolistic competition in the leisure sector

The theory of monopolistic competition describes a market with some features of
monopoly and some features of perfect competition. Barriers to entry are low, so the
market has many firms. However, firms in the market use product differentiation to
influence consumers, and thus face downward-sloping demand curves.

If you look back at the analysis in Chapter 3, you will see that this form of market
structure has implications for both productive and allocative efficiency. Firms
produce at a level of output that is below that at which long-run average cost would
reach the minimum, so there is not productive efficiency. Furthermore, price is set
above marginal cost, so allocative efficiency is not achieved either.

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A growing section of the leisure sector is food outlets. The number of restaurants and
chapter 6
fast-food outlets has mushroomed in recent decades, and on many high streets in UK
towns there is a proliferation of eating places and takeaways. This market seems
highly contestable, as the set-up costs for starting a new restaurant or takeaway are
relatively low. One of the characteristics of a market operating under monopolistic
competition is the product differentiation that takes place. Each individual seller sets
out to be different from its competitors. This is certainly a characteristic of the fast-
food sector, where outlets offer different styles of cuisine — burgers, Indian, Chinese,
Thai, Mexican and so on. Before condemning such a market as being damaging to
consumers because of the effect on productive and allocative efficiency, it is worth
being aware that this market offers consumers a wide range of choice for fast food.
If they value this choice, then this should be seen as a benefit that arises because of
the market structure.

Exercise 6.4
Discuss the factors that may have enabled large firms such as McDonald’s, Burger King or
KFC to become established as large firms in the fast-food sector alongside the many small
competing firms.

Another part of the leisure sector that typifies monopolistic competition is local taxi
markets. Count the local taxi companies in your local Yellow Pages. Again, firms may
seek to differentiate their products through having a fleet livery, by advertising pre-
booking only or by offering a limousine service. There may also be firms that
specialise in longer-distance trips, say to airports.

Summary
➤ Market structure is important in determining whether allocative efficiency can be achieved.
➤ However, productive efficiency must also be taken into account.
➤ The package holiday market has become oligopolistic, with a few large firms dominating the
market.
➤ However, the growth in the internet has meant that the market has become contestable, and
the existing firms are facing intense competition from online entrants.
➤ Television broadcasting has also shown oligopolistic tendencies in the past, and given its
characteristics as a public good and a merit good, there has been much government inter-
vention and regulation.
➤ Again, changing technology has transformed the market and allowed greater competition
among broadcasters.
➤ Spectator sport is another part of the leisure sector where the competition authorities have
been active, particularly in relation to the growth of satellite broadcasting, where BSkyB has
become a major player with a monopoly in certain areas.

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➤ The low-cost airlines have transformed the market for air travel, making use of a thorough
understanding of costs and the use of price discrimination.
➤ The leisure sector also offers examples of monopolistic competition in food outlets and taxi
markets.

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