Introduction
The system of global media is radical and more often than not does not respect anything that comes in its path to profitability. Notably, global media companies are politically reserved mainly because they benefit from the present social system in today’s world. Having fewer but giant media corporations may contribute to news coverage that is not aggressive. It is also argued that these global media companies are likely to reduce and control expression and information (Patrick, Evan H, 2001).
The global media is highly dominated by a few super-powerful, U.S based companies. This system has been working mainly in advancing in the market globally as well as promoting commercial worth. These companies however demean journalism and any culture that does not promote the interests of the media corporation. The top five global media companies are as follows; (Third World Traveler, 2007).
- Time Warner
- Disney
- Bertelsmann
- Viacom
- News Corporation
Time Warner
Formally, the company was known as Warner Communications Inclusive and Time Inclusive. The company is based in New York City. This is the largest corporation in the media industry worldwide. The company was formed back in the year 1989 as a result of a merger between Warner communications and Time inclusive. Time Warner has been advancing to becoming a full global corporation. It has a total of 200 subsidiaries in the world. The company in the year 1996 was earning over two-thirds of its income from the US. This global media company expects that globalization will foster even more growth in revenue.
Back in the year 2000, the Time Warner Company was bought by AOL at a price of US$ 164 billion. The companies merged into a brand new entity. The ownership of the new company was 55% owned by AOL and 45% by time Warner. The subsidiaries of this company are numerous. Just to mention a few, the subsidiaries include; CNN, Time Warner Cable, Cartoon Network Home Box Office among others. It has mainly operated in TV, Publishing, internet services, film, and telecommunications.
Warner has specialized in global television since this is one of the most lucrative and potential areas in the media business. The company has been channeling its resources to programming, production, and channels instead of developing the whole satellite structure. The corporation is also rated among the largest owners of movie theatres world wide. Time Warner intends to strategically merge with TNT, CNN, and HBO International, (Robert W. C.1999).
Disney
This is the second-largest global media company in the world. It was founded way back in 1963 by Walt and Roy Disney. The headquarters are in California. In the year 1995 Disney progressed from its state as a leading global producer to become a fully inclusive giant in the media industry. This was by the purchasing of Capital Cities/ABC at a price of $19 billion. This went down in history as the largest acquisition ever. Today, Disney makes its income as follows; 31% is from broadcasting, 23% comes fro theme parks and 46% from merchandising, films and publishing. The inclusion of ABC in Disney gave it a reputation as a world leader in cross-promotion as well as cross-selling to. This was in a bid to maximize on the company’s revenue (Walt Disney, 2007).
The success of Disney has been attributed to its limitation to channels broadcasting in English in Australia, Britain and North America. The company is set to open Disney channels in Germany, Italy, the Middle East, and France. This is expected to a favorite channel among children worldwide. Back In the year 1995 the corporation opened up a Chinese channel in Taiwan.Disney also purchased EPSN channel belonging to ABC. This sports channel has been a definite leader in sports and it holds three cable channels in the US, (Mark C. M. 2002).
Bertelsmann
This is a transnational company in the media industry. It is based in Germany and is operational in 63 nations. The media company has employed approximately 100, 000 employees. Bertelsmann recorded a revenue of 19.3 billion Euros in the year 2006.The company has not yet been publicly listed. It is however owned by the Bertelsmann Foundation at 76.9% shareholding. This is a non-profit based organization. The Mohn family owns 23.1% of the company, while the rest of the company forming 25% was owned by a Belgian company until the year 2006 (Robert C.1997).
This media corporation is among the media giants in European film industry. The empire was initially a global network in music clubs and books. The structure of its revenue is as follows; 33%book publishing, 31% Music and television, 16% printing business and 20% magazines and newspapers. The main objective of Bertelsmann is to change from an enterprise with activities internationally and become a real global media group.
The main strength of the company is the global circulation network for global music and book clubs, music, and its capacity with use of other languages instead of English. Bertelsmann has planned and has every intention of merging with or buying EMI as well as getting into joint ventures with the domestic music firms in the up and coming markets. The company is said to be the most suitable contender among all the giants in the media industry to venture the markets in Eastern Europe (Gerald C. 1997).
Bertelsmann is however faced by two main disadvantages competitively. The company does not have significant studios for television or film production, or an established film library. It is also less involved in the field of global television which currently is having the largest market. To address this issue, the company has merged with Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Telediffusion (CLT).
Viacom International
Viacom is an American based media corporation. It has a variety of interests worldwide. These include satellite and cable networks, movie production as well as distribution. The company has National Amusements as the majority shareholder. New Viacom is said to be growing faster than the original Viacom which split in the year 2005.The old Viacom after the split was named the CBS Corporation. National Amusements still retained the majority shareholding in both companies (Danny S. 1998).
Viacom has the following structure of its revenue sources; film studios generate 33%, Video rentals music as well as theme parks 33%, broadcasting, 18% while publishing earns 14%.The company aims to become a worldwide leader in software. Its growth strategy can be broken down to two main parts; The implementation of a policy on the use of the company’s promotions world wide to increase sales and a goal of being able to generate over 40% of its revenue from countries outside the US.
The strength of Viacom International has been MTV and Nickelodeon. The latter has been acting as the company’s powerhouse globally by expanding widely to all the continents with the exception of Antarctica programming in a variety of languages. Nickelodeon is a premier in children TV with an audience of over 19million households. Meanwhile, MTV is a dominant global TV channel with a focus on music. MTV uses digital technology for efficient programming at a lower cost in various regions world wide, (Dan K. 2002).
News Corporation
This is abbreviated as News Corp. It is a media company based in Australia and is rated among the worlds largest. The company is public and has been listed on both the Australian Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange. The majority of the shareholder approved the re-incorporation of this media giant in 2004 in the Delaware state of the US. In the year 2005, the company recorded revenue of US$ 23.859 billion. The largest source of revenue for News Corporation is the US amounting to 70%.
In the year 2005, 30% of the company was owned by the Murdoch family, 16.3% by Liberty while a prince from Saudi holds a 6-7% of the company. The rest is of the ownership is not publicly clear. The company is commonly identified with the Murdoch family. The mission of this company is to own and control multi-programming including children’s shows, sports, films and news. The corporation intends to beam the programmes through television or satellite channels to homesteads in the United States, Asia, Europe, and South America (Ben H. B, 2000).
News Corp is operational in six continents through nine media forms. Its revenue generation is structured as follows; 26% comes from filmed entertainment, newspapers generate 24%, television earns revenue of 21%, magazines 14% while the revenue from publishing of books amounts to 12%.News Corp however has been lacking a major interest in music although it has a partial interest in Channel V a music channel based in Asia, (Anup S.2007).
Political and Cultural Implications of Global Media Companies
They present historical era is characterized by democratization, technological changes and globalization. The media is hence playing an important role in the cultural and political arenas. The global media has dominated the industry today. This has made the media giants’ lobbyists in politics and given the potential to control and manipulate culture at the national level, regional level as well as the global level. The companies are very influential in the setting of the laws and regulations in the free market. On such issues, the public has little or nothing to contribute. The global media companies particularly in the United States are able to liaise with politicians in matters to do with public interest. The companies through the internet and various programming are able to influence and affect the culture thought the world (Alexander, 2006).
In conclusion, it can be said that the giant media companies today have more potential and influence than they had in the past. The companies are well established and have grown and highly diversified through mergers and join ventures. These companies have a lot of resources and are accessible to a majority of the homesteads world wide either through the satellite or television. The companies hence are accurately able to control the on goings in the political world. In addition, they are changing the present culture world wide through the influence of TV channels and advertising. The main source of revenue for the media companies is the running of adverts; this can contribute to manipulation of the media. The interests of the stakeholders in the media firms may influence what will be covered and what will not be covered.
References
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