In the early 1980s, roughly fifty different companies owned 90% of American media.
By 1992, that number had dropped to less than two dozen, and in recent years, that same
90% has fallen to just Six major conglomerates.
Although various mergers and layers of external control make this an inexact number.
Most of the “Big Six” hold interests in film production, cable and broadcast television,
news, sports, music, and online streaming.
So, who exactly controls the media?
As of 2015, the largest media company in the world by revenue is Comcast.
According to the SEC, in 2014, they reportedly made nearly $69 billion dollars.
Like the other conglomerates, Comcast owns nearly every step in media production and
distribution.
In fact, Comcast is the single largest cable provider on earth.
Content is created through subsidiaries like NBCUniversal, which is then broadcast over
TV and the Internet through Xfinity.
Comcast is also a major internet service provider, covering more than half of all US broadband
customers.
Even online streaming giant, Hulu, is jointly owned by three of the Big Six.
The next largest conglomerate is The Walt Disney Company, with reportedly roughly $48
billion dollars in revenue.
Disney has holdings in theme parks, movie studios, and diverse television networks,
such as ABC, A&E and ESPN.
They also own a number of legacy companies like Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, and Lucasfilms
of the Star Wars franchise.
The third of the “Big Six” is 21st Century Fox, which emerged in 2013 as a spin off of
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
Today, Fox makes about $32 billion dollars a year, and is predominantly focused on film
and television, including Fox News Channel, which made nearly 800 million dollars in ad
revenue in 2014.
The last independent conglomerate is Time Warner, with revenues of about $27 billion
dollars.
In the 1990s they were the largest media company in the world.
But an unsuccessful merger with AOL at the peak of the dot-com bubble made them lose
nearly $100 billion dollars in 2002.
Since then, AOL and Time Inc, as well as Time Warner’s entire cable division have become
separate companies.
Because they are now unrelated, Time Warner and Time Warner Cable are the fourth and fifth
largest media companies in the world, according to Forbes.
Finally, the last two are CBS and Viacom.
In 2013 they reported about $14 to $15 billion dollars in revenue each.
They used to be a single company controlled by National Amusements, a movie theater chain.
Today, although they are individually held, National Amusements’ owners have enough
stock in both to effectively dictate control.
So, in a way, there aren’t even six conglomerates, but five!
Or maybe there are seven?
Some, including former Time Warner’s former vice chairman Ted Turner, have said media
conglomerates have become oligopolies, and that they stifle innovation.
But others point out that they also can provide a greater global reach for smaller and newer
companies.
In fact, I work for one of those newer companies, Fusion, which is partially owned by ABC-Disney.
Check out my mini-documentary about independent citizen journalists in Brazil challenging
Rio’s police brutality.
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Timcast.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time!