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

SERVICES

Bertelsmann Services Group -- from consumer databases to call centres around the world.

Multimedia ad agency, Pixelpark `brandmanages' major clients such as Adidas.

BOOKS

Bertelsmann is the world's biggest publisher. Random House shifts over a million books a day in the US alone, and the company has Book Clubs across Europe, operations in South America, and is a major publisher of science titles.

TV

Owns the UK's Channel 5 and TV and radio stations across Europe including the RTL network. With 22 television stations and 18 radio stations in 10 countries, RTL Group is Europe's biggest broadcasting corporation. Bertelsmann Broadband is a new interactive TV venture, `the convergence between televisions and computers'.

MAGA ZINES

Gruner & Jahr publishes 80 magazines worldwide, from

4

Viacom

CEO: Sumner M. Redstone Employees 126,820 Revenues $12.86 billion

`Unbridled consumerism.' - MTV's Tom Freston outlines MTV India's content.(3)

Viacom from the cradle to the grave: `You can literally pick an advertiser's needs and market that advertiser across all the demographic profiles, from Nickelodeon with the youngest consumers to CBS with some of the oldest consumers.'(4)

TV

CABLE / DIGITAL

CBS has 200 affiliated TV stations, and distributes its shows globally. MTV the music video channel reaches 342 million households worldwide. Viacom also owns VH1, MTV's music channel `competitor'. Other major networks include Nickelodeon, Paramount and Comedy Central.

Viacom broke US rules controlling media ownership when it bought TV network CBS. Within a week, Senator McCain had proposed a change to those rules. Viacom is McCain's fourth biggest `career patron'.(5)

PLUS

over 2,000 book titles annually, 180 US radio stations, and Infinity Outdoor, the largest advertising company in the world

FILM

Major ownings, from Paramount to United Cinemas International, a joint venture with Vivendi Universal with 104 cinemas in Europe, Japan and South America. Blockbuster is the world's largest renter of videos with stores in 27 countries.

5

News Corporation

Chair: Rupert Murdoch Employees 50,820 Revenues $13.5 billion

MAGA ZINES

NEWS PAPERS

The

SPORT

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

FILM TV

Fox TV is the largest in the US with 22 stations. Hit shows include `Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?' There are 14 Fox companies internationally. including 20th Century Fox TV.

News Corp uses its global reach to localize its tax calculations, getting its 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)

BOOKS

HarperCollins and seven other publishing houses.

CABLE / DIGITAL

FOX News, and seven other US news networks. In the UK, BskyB, Sky with 150 channels and services. 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.