Net Neutrality: The potential winners and losers in the digital media space through an event study

Abstract

Throughout my entire education, I have witnessed the internet develop into a powerful tool. My thesis evolves around the direction the internet is taking, as it deals with video distribution. Coming to Texas Christian University as a FTDM major, I have always been interested in the digital media space, so to have the opportunity to connect my interests of finance and film into one thesis has been a blessing. Sometimes we take for granted how media is delivered to us, and my thesis peels back the layers to see exactly how this works in the digital media space. This thesis takes a dive into net neutrality and how specific events on the net neutrality timeline could potentially affect the stock price of both the content producers (facebook, amazon, netflix, google) versus the internet service providers (comcast, AT&T, verizon).