1. General Electric
General Electric holds minority shares in universal pictures.
2. Walt Disney
Walt Disney owns the ABC Network, which includes ESPN and the Disney Channel. Also owns marvel comics.
3. The News Corp.
The News Corp. owns the Fox News Corporation which includes Fox News, Fox Business Channel.
4. Time Warner
Time Warner is the largest conglomerate in the world today. Holdings include CNN, Cartoon Network, HBO and many more.
5. Viacom
Holdings including BET, Nickelodeon, etc....
6. CBS
The CBS Company owns the CBS Television Company along with other companies.
* Most of these companies own TV, publishing outlets, radio stations, magazines, websites and many more...
They also a link between the big 6 companies as for example CBS & Time Warner who are in joint ventures with the company CW.
How does it affect the UK audiences? What are the implications are involved?
As a result of the big 6 US conglomerates influencing things in the media industry this will make it harder for UK audiences to find, for example UK independent films as the film industry is being dominated by US mainstream multiplexes. So this means the UK independent films will suffer as well as other nations’ independent films.
As a result there is a potential for a lack of choice as for example independent films will be shown far less than their mainstream counterparts resulting in the UK audiences to miss out.
Also the benefits are the conglomerates large scale profit allowing them to decrease their average cost and this could have a positive knock-on effect amongst the media consumers. This will as a result boost consumer satisfaction.
However the media conglomerate could manipulate the consumers by charging higher prices for their media products, giving them less choice. As the conglomerates know the people have no other alternatives. This is because the conglomerates could have a profit motivated ideology instead of sales max.
A dis-advantage of the conglomerate it might not allow friendly competition to the particular media market and as a result will drive off their competitors. This could have a bad effect on the R&D of the media industry. So such things as technological advances will be hampered.
Horizontal/or Vertical Integration Patterns?
The big 6 tend to have a vertical approach in the media industry. For example Time Warner owns the television network Cartoon Network and over various media outlets. This allows the big 6 to diversify and less risk from external shock, for example if a media conglomerate such as Disney has negative situation in their television services (e.g. Disney Channel). Their comic book sales could save them from a loss.
