Diversification, Vertical Integration and Multi-Platform Production in Italian Media and Telecommunications Industries

This paper explores the organization of economic activities of Italian telecommunications and mass media industries. The data set includes the Italian firms that were active in November 2013. Diversification and vertical integration characterize the minority of these firms: 85 percent of them are involved in only one type of activity. Diversification increases with firm and market size, while vertical integration is not affected by firm and market dimensions. On the other hand, diversification and vertical integration decrease with the degree of market rivalry. Finally, older firms have higher probability to be vertically integrated and lower probability to diversify services and contents. Economic theory offers reasonable explanations for some of these finding