3 ms·
Two? According to Statista these are the rankings† of US media companies by revenue in 2017 (in € billion) 72.64 Comcast 50.26 The Walt Disney Company
by igravious 8y ago
Two?
According to Statista these are the rankings† of US media companies by revenue in 2017 (in € billion)
72.64 Comcast
50.26 The Walt Disney Company
32.94 AT&T Entertainment Group
31.18 News Corp. Ltd. / 21st Century Fox
26.49 Time Warner Inc.
23.18 Viacom Inc. / CBS Corp.
For comparison Netflix's 2017 revenue in € was 9.9
You'll notice that I left out internet media companies like Alphabet, social media companies like Facebook, telecommunication companies like Charter Comm., and tech giants like Amazon.com and Apple. I did this to purely focus on conglomerates with significant traditional media holdings.
Given that these six companies allegedly controlled 90% of the media landscape‡ in 2012 it is worrying that either Comcast or Disney would be allowed to swallow Fox. (I am unsure what the percentage figure is now.)
I think it is especially worrying that content creation and media distribution is allowed in the same company. I guess we have AOL Time Warner to thank for that precedent?
Finally, it is unclear to me how separate News Corp is from 21st Century Fox. Wikipedia says, “On 28 June 2012, after concerns from shareholders in response to its recent scandals and to "unlock even greater long-term shareholder value", founder Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corporation's assets would be split into two publicly traded companies, one oriented towards media, and the other towards publishing. The corporate spin-off formally took place on 28 June 2013; where the present News Corp. was renamed 21st Century Fox and consists primarily of media outlets, while a new News Corp was formed to take on the publishing and Australian broadcasting assets.”
This would suggest that the revenues of 21st Century Fox are a lot less than the combined revenues of News Corp. Ltd. / 21st Century Fox combined.
† https://www.statista.com/statistics/272469/largest-media-companies-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/272469/largest-media-com...
‡ http://uk.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6 http://uk.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-9...
- WorldMaker 8y ago> I think it is especially worrying that content creation and media distribution is allowed in the same company. I guess we have AOL Time Warner to thank for that precedent? Anti-Trust law has never figured out how to handle vertical monopolies. Before AOL Time Warner were RCA, Westinghouse, Sony, etc.
- freeone3000 8y ago> I think it is especially worrying that content creation and media distribution is allowed in the same company. I guess we have AOL Time Warner to thank for that precedent? It's the more common precedent that if you make a thing, it's not illegal to sell the thing you made.