A media conglomerate describes companies that own large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet.

As of 2008, The Walt Disney Company is the world's largest media conglomerate, with News Corporation, Viacom and Time Warner ranking second, third and fourth respectively.

Terminology

A conglomerate is, by definition, a large company that consists of divisions of seemingly unrelated businesses.

It is questionable whether media companies are unrelated, . The trend has been strongly for the sharing of various kinds of content (news, film and video, music for example). The media sector is tending to consolidate, and formerly diversified companies may appear less so as a result. Therefore the term media group may also be applied. It has not so far replaced the more traditional usage.

Examples

Some of the largest media conglomerates include:

• Bertelsmann

• Bonnier Group

• Canwest

• CBS Corporation (owned by National Amusements)

• Comcast

• Fininvest

• General Electric

• Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso

• Hearst Corporation

• Lagardère Media

• Liberty Media

• News Corporation

• Organizações Globo

• PRISA

• Schibsted

• E. W. Scripps Company

• Sony

• Sun-Times Media Group

• Televisa

• Time Warner

• The Times Group (distinct from Times Newspapers of News Corporation)

• Viacom (owned by National Amusements)

• Vivendi

• The Walt Disney Company

Criticism

Critics have accused the larger conglomerates of dominating media, especially news, and refusing to publicize or deem "newsworthy" information that would be harmful to their other interests, and of contributing to the merging of entertainment and news (sensationalism) at the expense of tough coverage of serious issues. They are also accused of being a leading force for the standardization of culture (see globalization, Americanization), and they are a frequent target of criticism by partisan political groups which often perceive the news productions biased toward their foes.

In response, the companies and their supporters state that they maintain a strict separation between the business end and the production end of news departments.

There is also the issue of tremendous concentration of media ownership, reducing diversity in both ownership and programming (TV shows and radio shows). There is also a strong trend in the U.S. for conglomerates to eliminate localism in broadcasting, instead using broadcast automation and voice tracking, sometimes from another city in another state. Some radio stations use prepackaged and generic satellite-fed programming with no local content, except the insertion of radio ads.

See also

• Concentration of media ownership

• Media imperialism

• Media proprietor

• Lists of corporate assets