Ultra concentraded media: top selling brands: the largest size media companies in the world - with just a few of their `family brands'

New Internationalist, April, 2001

* Biggest media Mergers ever in 2000!

* Now with record-breaking monopoly!

New entry

Vivendi Universal

Chair: Jean Marie Messier (nickname `J2M') Revenues not yet Available.

ONLINE

VivendiNet is the home of all the company's Internet projects, including Vizzavi.com with Vodafone combining Internet, mobile phones and interactive TV. Also owns MP3.com a music download site to rival Napster, Education.com, an online learning site.

MUSIC

Universal Music Group has a 22-percent share of the global music market with labels like Polygram and Motown -- and operates in 63 countries.

FILM TV

Canal the leading French station has 14 million subscribers in 11 European countries. Universal Studios has networks across the world, and theme channels like `Action and Suspense', whilst Universal TV owns TV series such as

TELECOM

Owns 2 French major mobile phone companies. Vivendi Telecom International has operations in Spain, Hungary, Monaco, Poland and Egypt.

PLUS

Vivendi Environnement, the water and utilities group -- including UK train service Connex.

THEME PARKS

Five theme park `Universal Studio Experiences' from Barcelona to Beijing.

BOOKS

Havas owns 60 publishing houses selling 80 million books and 40 million CD-ROMS a year.

Vivendi, better known as a collossus of the privatized water industry -- from Puerto Rico to Three Valleys Water in the UK -- merged with media company Seagram in 2000. Europe's answer to AOL Time Warner, Vivendi Universal has taken `convergence' furthest -- integrating film, music and mobile phones. As a telecoms giant it has big stakes in the cables and wires that deliver these services.

1

AOL Time Warner

Chair Steve Case / CEO Gerald Levin Employees 79,000 Revenues $31.8 billion

In January 2001 one of the largest mergers in corporate history made America Online (AOL) and Time Warner the world's biggest media company.

`A vast empire of broadcasting, music, movies and publishing assets, complemented by AOL's dominant Internet presence, all $$word$$ to consumers ... through Time Warner's cable network. Think of it as AOL Time Warner Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow,'

-- TIME magazine.(1)

PLUS

24 book brands, 52 record labels, and the entire Turner Entertainment Corporation including four sports teams.

ONLINE

AOL US and AOL International (14 countries) plus eight other online ventures includingCompuServe and Netscape. Time Warner Cable is trial-running a telephone service over the Internet in the US.

AOL has 27 million subscribers. They spend an incredible 84 per cent of their Internet time on AOL alone, which provides a regulated leisure and shopping environment dominated by in-house brands -- from Time magazine to Madonna's latest album.

RETAIL THEME PARKS

Theme parks, Warner Bros studio stores in 30 countries, and tied merchandise.

MAGA ZINES

BOOKS

24 book brands -- from Time Life Books to Little, Brown and Company.

CABLE / DIGITAL

29 operations from Poland to Brazil including CNN, Time Warner Cable with 13 million customers in the US.

TV FILM

12 companies including Warner Bros (Daffy Duck) and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons (Scooby Doo). Multiplex cinemas in 12 countries.

2

The Walt Disney Co

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

The company wants to extend the Disney experience into almost every aspect of life. The magic need never stop in Celebration, Florida, the $2.5 billion pre-planned town built by Disney, which regulates everything from who can move in to the height of the residents' hedges.

FILM

Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax Films, Buena Vista, and four others.

PLUS

Disney Books, 18 online ventures including Infoseek, 6 music labels, several hockey and baseball teams, and 720 Disney Stores worldwide.

`In 1998, ABC News discarded an investigative report that raised embarrassing questions about hiring and safety practices at Disney World.'

-- Leo Bogart, Commercial Culture

THEME PARKS

Include Disneyland LA and Paris, Disney World Florida, MGM studios, Disney's Animal Kingdom, World Sports Complex, 27 hotels with over 36,000 rooms, two cruise ships, and the Disney Institute where professionals can `discover the business behind the magic'.

TV

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

THEATRE

Disney Theatrical Productions' extravagant stage musicals include The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast.

MAGA ZINES

NEWS PAPERS

Five magazine publishing groups and four newspapers including St Louis Daily Record.

CABLE / DIGITAL

The Disney Channel broadcasts in 8 countries. International sports channel ESPN broadcasts to over 165 countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America. Other channels include Walt Disney TV, Sportsvision Australia and eight others.

3

Bertelsmann AG

CEO: Dr Thomas Middlehof Employees 64,800 Revenues $16.3 billion

ONLINE

From Germany to Malaysia online book shopping across the planet, Lycos web portal, Barnes & Noble.com -- and numerous other online ventures.

MUSIC

Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) operates in 54 countries. Its US labels own in turn 200 labels worldwide.

Heinrich Mohn, head of the German Bertelsmann house from 1921, was a sponsoring member of the SS. The company was a major printer of Nazi material during the 'Third Reich'.(2)