1. Unit 8 – Creative Media
Industry Awareness
• Aims: Describe cross-industry ownership in the
Creative Media Sector
• Objectives: To understanding how big media
conglomerates function, using a specific case study

2. Cross-Industry Ownership
• When one company or person has stakes in several areas
of the media industry
• Examples?
• Richard Desmond owns OK! Magazine, Channel 5, the
Daily Express and the Daily Star
• Rupert Murdoch: The Sun, The Sunday Times, The Times,
39% of BskyB, 20th Century Fox, Intermix Media Inc.

3. News Corps bid for BSkyB
• When did it all begin?
• Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is seeking to take full
control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB, by acquiring the
60.9% of the shares it does not already own
• Why did the sale matter so much?
• News Corporation is the UK’s largest newspaper publisher,
printing more than one in three copies sold. Sky is the
largest broadcaster, with turnover of £5.9bn against the
BBC’s £4.8bn. The Murdoch family say a merger makes
good financial sense, but critics say it would create a media
group of unprecedented power, in which newspapers could
be bundled with a Sky subscription, or Sky sports content
could be shown exclusively on Times and Sun websites

4. News Corps bid for BSkyB
• Doesn’t Murdoch already control Sky?
• No, he owns 40% of the voting shares in News Corp. It in
turn owns 39.1% of BSkyB, with others holding the rest.
Although Rupert’s son James is BSkyB’s chairman, the two
companies are separate entities.
• What is the vital criterion?
• Cross-media power. Cross-media ownership rarely triggers
competition law concerns, because TV and papers are
considered distinct markets. Ofcom, though, is judging the
deal by “public interest” considerations: whether the number
of independent voices in media will be reduced as a result
of a super-Murdoch company. This is known as the media
plurality test.

5. News Corps bid for BSkyB
• BBC documentary on Murdoch and his ever increasing
power and bid for world domination…

6. MEDIA GIANTS!