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MEDIA CONCENTRATION
source: www.globalissues.org/
HumanRights/Media/Corporations/
Owners.asp
www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/
cultural/2003/0804media.htm
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Every year the process of media concentration is increasing and with it comes growing concern for the impact on media quality, pluralism and diversity:
- in1983, 50 corporations dominated most of every mass medium and the biggest media merger in history was a $340 million deal;
- in1987, the fifty companies had shrunk to 29;
- in1990, the twenty-nine had shrunk to 23;
- in 1997, the biggest firms numbered 10 and involved the $19 billion Disney-ABC deal, at the time the biggest media merger ever;
- in 2000, AOL Time Warner 's $350 billion merged corporation was more than 1,000 times larger than the biggest deal of 1983.
- in 2003, the global media system was dominated by a first tier of 9 giant firms. The five largest are Time Warner (1997 sales: $24 billion), Disney ($22 billion), Bertelsmann ($15 billion), Viacom ($13 billion), and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation ($11 billion).
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