This is my class report in my Global Media Environment class.

1. Media Convergence,
and the Players in the
Global Media System
By Nancy R. Cudis
1 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

2. Media Convergence
 Fewer individuals and organizations control
increasing shares of the mass media
 No longer a recent development (since the
1980s)
 Viewed as a business expansion
 Result: A global commercial media system
dominated by a small number of
superpowerful, mostly US-based
transnational media corporations
2 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

3. Definition of Terms
 Media mergers: one media-related
company buys another company for
control of their resources
• To increase revenues
• To increase viewership
 Media oligopoly: a few firms dominate
a market (as a result of buyouts,
forced or otherwise)
3 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

4. Contributing factors
 Deregulation – frees economic activity
from the binding rules of the
government
• Brought upon by pressure from IMF,
World Bank, and US Government
 New satellite digital technologies
4 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

5. Why merge?
 to reduce labour, administrative and
material costs
 to use the same media content across
several media outlets
 to attract increased advertising by providing
advertisers with package deals and one-
stop shopping for a number of media
platforms
 to increase brand recognition and brand
loyalty among audiences through cross-
promotion and cross-selling.
5 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

6. The Players: In the late 90s
 Time Warner ($24 billion)
 The Walt Disney Company ($22
billion)
 Bertelsmann ($15 billion)
 Viacom ($13 billion)
 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation
($11 billion)
6 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

7. The Players: As of 2010
 The Walt Disney Company
 News Corporation
 Time Warner
 Viacom
7 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

8. The Players: A Scenario
 The Walt Disney Company
 Broadcasting (31 % of its income)
 Theme parks (23 %)
 Creative content--films, publishing,
and merchandising (46 %)
8 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

9. The Players: A Scenario
 Disney selected holdings:
 The U.S. ABC TV and radio networks
 10 U.S. TV stations and 21 radio stations
 U.S. and global cable television channels:
Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews;
holdings in Lifetime, A&E and History channels
 Americast, interactive TV joint venture with
several telephone companies
 Theme parks and resorts: DisneyLand, Disney
World
9 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

10. The Players: A Scenario
 Disney selected holdings
 Controlling interests in the NHL Anaheim
Might Ducks and major league baseball’s
Anaheim Angels
 Consumer products, including more than 500
Disney retails stores worldwide
 Disney Quest: a chain of high tech arcade
game stores
 Disney Cruise Line
10 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

11. The Players: A Scenario
 Disney selected holdings
 Several major film, video, and TV production
studio: Disney, Miramax, and Buena Vista
 Magazine and newspaper publishing,
through its subsidiaries: Fairchild
Publications and Chilton Publications
 Book publishing: Hyperion Books
 Music labels: Hollywood Records, Mammoth
Records, Walt Disney Records
11 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

12. Rules of Thumb
 Treat global market as an arena for
competition
 Dominate the markets; you must be
big enough that your competition can’t
buy you out
 Have interests in numerous media
industries
12 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

13. In the Philippines
13 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

14. In the Philippines
14 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

15. In the Philippines
 ABS-CBN Corporation
 ABS-CBN in other locations outside
the Philippines
 Radio stations
 Cable TV
 Publishing
15 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

16. Think about it.
 By any standard of democracy, such a
concentration of media power is
troubling, if not unacceptable.
16 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

17. Issues
 Loyalty to advertisers than to public
interest
 Reduction in market-based
competition (equity joint ventures)
 Loss in diversity of viewpoints
 Less diversity in programming and
reporting
17 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

18. Issues
 Less coverage of local issues
 Less independent and critical
journalism
 Media content is treated as a product
 Feeds the culture of consumerism
18 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012

19. Questions?
19 www.nancycudis.com July 14, 2012