Universal Music In January 2001 one of the largest mergers in Canal + PLUS TV Group has a 22-perFILM the leading

is the home MUSIC ONLINE corporate history made America Online (AOL) and 24 book cent share of the French of all the brands, 52 Time Warner the worlds biggest media company. global music station has companys record labels, 14 million subscribers in 11 Internet projects, including market with labels and the AOL US A vast empire of broadcasting, music, movies and European countries. Universal Vizzavi.com with Vodafone like Polygram and entire Turner ONLINE and AOL publishing assets, complemented by AOLs Motown and International Studios has networks across the combining Internet, mobile Entertaindominant Internet presence, all fed to (14 countries) operates in 63 world, and theme channels like phones and interactive TV. ment plus eight other online consumers through Time Warners TV Action and Suspense, whilst Also owns MP3.com a music countries. Corporation FILM ventures including cable network. Think of it as AOL Universal TV owns TV series download site to rival including CompuServe and such as Kojak, Miami Napster, Education.com, four Time Warner Anywhere, New Netscape. Time Warner Vice, Columbo. Cinemas 12 companies an online learning site. sports entry! Cable is trial-running Anytime, Anyhow, including Warner include the Cineplex teams. a telephone Bros (Daffy Duck) and TIME magazine.1 Odeon chain, and service over the AOL Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Vivendi, better United Cinema Internet in (Scooby Doo). Multiplex cinemas has 27 million known as a the US. International. in 12 countries. subscribers. They collossus of the Owns 2 French 29 operations spend an incredible 84 privatized water CABLE / from Poland to Brazil Vivendi Universal TELECOM major mobile per cent of their Internet time DIGITAL Chair: Jean-Marie Messier industry from phone including CNN, Time (nickname J2M) on AOL alone, which provides a Revenues not yet companies. Puerto Rico to Three Warner Cable with 13

VivendiNet

CABLE / DIGITAL

MAGA ZINES

publishing groups and eight others. four newspapers including St Louis Disney THEATRE Daily Record. Theatrical Productions extravagant stage musicals include The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast.
TV

The company wants to extend the Disney experience into almost every aspect of broadcasts in 8 life. The magic need never stop in countries. International sports Celebration, Florida, the $2.5 billion channel ESPN broadcasts to pre-planned town built by Disney, over 165 countries in Asia, which regulates everything Europe, Latin America. Other channels include from who can move in to the NEWS Walt Disney TV, PAPERS Five height of the residents Sportsvision magazine hedges. Australia and
The Disney Channel

Major US TV networks ABC television & radio 10 television stations and 29 radio stations.

The Walt Disney Co

Chairman and Chief Executive Michael D Eisner Employees 120,000 Revenues $23.4 billion

Valleys Water in the UK merged with media company Seagram in BOOKS 2000. Europes answer Havas to AOL Time Warner, owns Vivendi Universal has 60 publishing taken convergence houses furthest integrating selling 80 film, music and million mobile phones. As books a telecoms giant it and 40 million has big stakes in CD-ROMS the cables and a year. wires that deliver these services.

available.

Vivendi Telecom

The largest six media companies

MAGA NEWS The

ZINES PAPERS New Our York Post in reach is with just a few the US, The Times, The Sun, unmatched and the News of the World in around the world. of their family the UK. In Australia the Were reaching company owns over 100 brands. people from the national and regional titles including The Australian, moment they the Daily Telegraph, The CABLE / FOX wake up until Sunday Tasmanian, and 67 suburban DIGITAL News, they fall Major ownings, from papers. Also Independent FILM Paramount to United and seven other US asleep. Newspapers of New Zealand, with news networks. In the Cinemas International, a joint Rupert 6 55 national and community papers, and UK, BskyB, Sky with 150 venture with Vivendi Universal with 104 titles in Fiji and Papua. Murdoch channels and services.

in the world

2000! # Now with record-breaking monopoly!

www.guerillamedia.org

International has Vivendi operations in THEME PARKS Environ- Spain, Hungary, nement, Monaco, Five the water Poland and theme Egypt. and park utilities Universal group Studio including Experiences UK train from Barcelona service to Beijing. Connex.

PLUS

million customers in the US. 24 book brands from BOOKS Time Life Books to Little, Brown and Company.

regulated leisure and shopping environment dominated by in-house AOL Time Warner brands fromTime magazine to Madonnas latest album. Chair Steve Case / CEO Gerald Levin
Employees 79,000 Revenues $31.8 billion

Include Disneyland LA and Paris, Disney World

THEME Florida, MGM studios, Disneys Animal PARKS Kingdom, World Sports Complex, 27 FILM

MAGA Time, Fortune and 33 other titles ZINES with a total of 120 million readers.

RETAIL THEME PARKS

9 12/9 X 1 02/0XXXXXX MS

In PLUS Walt hotels with over 36,000 rooms, two 1998, Disney Disney, cruise ships, and the Disney Books, Touchstone, ABC News Institute where professionals 18 online Miramax Theme parks, Warner Bros studio discarded an can discover the ventures Films, Buena stores in 30 countries, and tied investigative business behind including Vista, and merchandise. the magic. report that raised Infoseek, 6 four others. embarrassing questions music labels, several hockey about hiring and safety and baseball practices at Disney World. teams, and 720 Leo Bogart, Disney Stores # Biggest media Commercial worldwide. Culture mergers ever in
TV

Owns the UKs

Unbridled consumerism. MTVs Tom Freston outlines MTV Indias content.3

worldwide, from Channel 5 Femme to Prima, and TV and radio ONLINE and owns nine stations across Europe including the RTL network. With newspapers across From Germany 22 television stations and 18 radio Germany and to Malaysia stations in 10 countries, RTL Group Eastern Europe. online book is Europes biggest broadcasting shopping across corporation. Bertelsmann Broadband the planet, Lycos is a new interactive TV venture, the web portal, convergence between televisions and Barnes & computers.

MAGA publishes 80 magazines ZINES

Gruner & Jahr

Australian channel FOXTEL. STAR TV satellite service reaches over 300 million people across Asia. Phoenix satellite TV and four other channels serve much of China. News Corp also broadcasts into India, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, Latin America, Europe.

SPORT

Australian National Rugby League, the LA Dodgers baseball team, and UK football clubs.

1 Time magazine, 25 December 2000; 2 The Independent Historical Commission for Investigating the History of the Bertelsmann House during the Third Reich, http://www.uhkommission.de/news.htm; 3 No Logo, Naomi Klein, Flamingo, 2000; 4 Financial analyst, New York Times, 8 September 1999; 5 Off the Record, Center for Public Integrity; 6 News Corporation 1999 Annual Report; 7 The Economist, 20 March 1999

Comedy Central.

Researched by Granville Williams of CPBF. The full ownership chart is hosted online by Media Channel.

www.mediachannel.org/ownership
New Internationalist 333

April 2001

19

ALL PHOTOS CORBIS

Fox TV is the largest in the US News Corporation with 22 HarperCollins Chair: Rupert Murdoch stations. Hit shows include Employees 50,820 BOOKS and seven other Revenues Who Wants to Marry a $13.5 billion publishing Millionaire? There are houses. News Corp uses its 14 Fox companies internationally global reach to localize its including 20th tax calculations, getting its Century Fox TV.
FILM TV

accounts done in countries with low tax rates as a result it paid only 6.1 per cent tax worldwide in the 4 years to June 1998.7

Viacom from the cradle to the grave: You can literally pick an advertisers needs PLUS over 2,000 book titles annually, and market that 180 US radio stations, and Infinity advertiser across all Viacom Outdoor, the largest CEO: Sumner M. Redstone the demographic Employees 126,820 advertising company Revenues Viacom profiles, from $12.86 billion in the world broke US rules Nickelodeon with the controlling media youngest consumers TV CABLE / DIGITAL ownership when it bought TV to CBS with some network CBS. Within a week, of the oldest CBS has 200 affiliated TV Senator McCain had consumers. 4 stations, and distributes its proposed a change to shows globally. MTV the music video channel reaches 342 million those rules. Viacom is households worldwide. Viacom also owns McCains fourth VH1, MTVs music channel competitor. biggest career Other major networks include 5 patron. Nickelodeon, Paramount and
cinemas in Europe, Japan and South America. Blockbuster is the worlds largest renter of videos with stores in 27 countries.

Noble.com
BOOKS

Bertelsmann is the worlds

Bertelsmann AG books a day in the US alone, and CEO: Dr Thomas Middelhof Employees 64,800 the company has Book Clubs Revenues across Europe, operations in Bertelsmann $16.3 billion MUSIC South America, and is a Services Group Heinrich major publisher of from consumer Bertelsmann Mohn, head science titles. databases to call Music Group centres around the of the German (BMG) operates world. Bertelsmann house in 54 countries. from 1921, was a SERVICES Multimedia ad Its US labels agency, Pixelpark own in turn sponsoring member of brand manages the SS. The company was a 200 labels major clients such worldwide.
as Adidas.

biggest publisher. Random House shifts over a million

and numerous other online ventures.

major printer of Nazi material during the Third Reich.2