I have nothing to add here other than to thank Ryan81 for typing the phrase properly. "To spite their face", as opposed to "despite their face." Like a breath of fresh air. Ahh.
Popular equity and futures pricing tends to fall toward a public utility category, not discretionary consumer items. It's not at all comparable to Starbucks or Apple, both of which have many alternatives. NYSE is a monopoly of sorts and knows this, they've known fully well what they're doing as this has been their strategy for a very long time.
I was thinking of it from the perspective of a trader (as traders would be directly impacted by higher data fees). It's true that NYSE has a monopoly over the transaction of many stocks. However traders are not limited to trading only those stocks. So there are alternatives available that would benefit from an increase in liquidity driven by higher trading fees on the alternative (NYSE-traded products).
Other participants are more important than traders here. Company insiders, pension funds etc. which practically have no alternative other than to do what NYSE dictates. This is where I think regulators need to be more forceful as the free market starts cannibalizing itself.
Futures Giant CME to Bolster Market Data Revenue -- Market Talk Today 10:01 AM ET (Dow Jones) 10:01 ET - CME Group is touting market-data revenues as a key component of its growth going forward. "We are bullish on market data," says Terry Duffy, CEO of the Chicago-based futures giant, speaking on a quarterly earnings call. (.. ) (END) Dow Jones Newswires
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