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Media Facts
Number of Corporations that
Control U.S. Media, 1983-2004

Source: www.corporations.org/media/
Year
Number
1983
1987
1990
1992
1997
200
2004
50
29
23
14
10
6
5
Who Controls the Media?
Source: National Organization for Women Foundation (NOW), Nation Magazine, takebackthemedia.com, mediachannel.org
Parent
Company
Networks
Owned
Cable
Interests
Web Print Music Movies Other
Interests
General Electric
$100.5 billion
1998 revenues
NBC
includes programming, news
and more than 13 TV and radio stations
  • A&E (with Disney and Hearst)
  • American Movie Classics (25%)
  • Biography Channel (with Disney and Hearst)
  • Bravo (50%)
  • Bravo International
  • CNBC
  • Court TV (with AOL-TW)
  • Fox Sports Net
  • History Channel (with Disney and Hearst)
  • Independent Film Channel
  • MSG Network
  • MSNBC  (50%)
  • National Geographic Worldwide
  • News Sport
  • Prime
  • Prism (withRainbow, a subsidiary of Cablevision, and Liberty Media, a subsidiary of TCI)
  • Romance Classics
  • Sports Channel Cincinnati, Chicago, Florida, New England, Pacific, Ohio, Philadelphia





AOL-Time Warner
$26.8 billion
1998 revenues


TURNER BROADCASTING

WB

Television Network


  • Cartoon Network
  • Cinemax (75%) with AT&T (25%)
  • CNN
  • CNN Airport Network
  • CNN International
  • CNN/SI with Sports Illustrated
  • CNNfn financial network
  • CNNRadio
  • Comedy Central (37.5%) with Viacom (50%), AT&T (12.5%)
  • Court TV (33%) with GE
  • Headline News
  • HBO (75%) with AT&T (25%)
  • HBO Direct Broadcast
  • OVATION (50%)
  • Sega Channel
  • Sportsouth
  • TBS Superstation
  • TNT
  • Turner Classic Movies
  • TVKO (75%)
  • Women's Information Television (WIN) (partial)
  • AOL including AOL Instant Messenger
  • CompuServe
  • Netscape
  • ICQ Instant Messenger
  • MusicNet.com
  • digitalcity
  • moviefone
  • mapquest
  • Spinner.com
  • winamp
  • SHOUTcast
  • Amazon.com (2%)
  • Dr. Koop (10%)
  • Time
  • Life
  • People
  • Mad Magazine
  • DC Comics (with AT&T)
  • IPC Publishing (UK)
  • Warner Books
  • Little, Brown
  • Time-Life Books
    (with Bertelsmann)
  • BOMC


  • Warner Bros.
  • Atlantic
  • Elektra
  • London-Sire
  • Rhino
  • Warner-Chappell Publishers
  • Quincy Jones Entertainment Co. (with AT&T, Quincy Jones)
  • Columbia House (with Sony)

  • Warner Bros.
  • New Line
  • Fine Line (with AT&T)
  • MGM library
  • RKO library
  • UCI Theaters (with Viacom)
  • WF Cinema (with Viacom)
  • Warner HomeVideo
  • Atlanta Braves
  • Atlanta Hawks
  • Atlanta Thrashers
  • Goodwill Games
  • Phillips Arena
  • Time Warner Telecom
  • Warner Bros. Studio Stores
  • Sportsline Radio
  • <>Movie World Theme Park (Australia) with  AT&T, Village Roadshow

The Walt Disney Co.
$23 billion
1998 revenues
ABC

  • A&E (37.5% with Hearst and GE)
  • Biography Channel (with GE and Hearst)
  • Buena Vista Television
  • Classic Sports Network
  • Disney Channel
  • Disney Television (58 hours/week syndicated programming
  • E! (35%)
  • ESPN (80% with Hearst)
  • ESPN2 (80% with Hearst)
  • ESPN Classic (80% with Hearst)
  • ESPN West (80% with Hearst)
  • ESPNews (80% with Hearst)
  • History Channel (37.5% with Hearst and GE)
  • Lifetime Network (50%)
  • Toon Disney
  • Touchstone Television





Bertelsmann
$16.3  billion
Channel 5 (UK)
  • Lycos.com
  • BarnesandNoble.com
  • Random House
  • Gruner & Jahr
  • BMG


Viacom
$12.86 billion


CBS
UPN

  • All News Channel (50%)
  • CBS Telenoticias (30%)
  • Comedy Central (50%)with AOL-TW (37.5%), AT&T
  • FLIX
  • Home Team Sports (66% with News Corporation)
  • M2: Music Television
  • Midwest Sports Channel
  • Movie Channel
  • MTV
  • Nick at Nite's TVLand
  • Nickelodeon
  • Paramount Networks
  • Showtime
  • Sundance Channel (45%)
  • TNN
  • VH1



  • Paramount
  • United Cinema International (with Vivendi)
  • Blockbuster Video
News Corporation
$13.5 billion
1998 revenues


FOX


  • FIT TV Partnership
  • Fox Family Channel (50%)
  • Fox News Channel
  • Fox Sports Net (25% with TCI, GE and Cablevision)
  • fx (50% with TCI's Liberty Media)
  • fxM (50% with TCI's Liberty Media)
  • National Geographic Channel (50%)
  • TV Guide Channel


  • NY Post (U.S.)
  • The Times (UK)
  • The Sun (UK)
  • The Australian (Aus.)
  • Daily Telegraph(Aus.)
  • Sunday Tasmanian(Aus.)
  • Harper Collins Publishing


  • Australian National Rugby League
  • LA Dodgers
Sony
$53.8 billion
TELEMUNDO
  • Game Show Network (50% with Liberty)
  • Music Choice (With AOL-TW, EMI, AT&T)
  • Soap City


  • So-net ISP (Japan)

  • American
  • Columbia
  • Epic
  • Sony
  • Columbia House (50% with AOL-TimeWarner)
  • Whitefield Recording Studios
  • Columbia Pictures
  • Screen Gems
  • Sony Pictures Classics
  • Revolution Studios (with News Corp., Aol-TW, Disney)
  • Loews Theatres (with Goldman-Sachs)
  • PlayStation
  • RED Distribution

AT&T (TCI)
 $7.6 billion
1997 revenues part of 

WB (25%) with AOL-TW, Tribune Co.)
  • Action Pay-per-view
  • Animal Planet
  • BET (Black Entertainment Television)
  • including BET on Jazz, BET Movies/Starz! 3
  • Box
  • Cinemax (25%) with AOL-TW (75%)
  • Comedy Central (12.5%) with AOL-TW (37.5%), Viacom
  • Comcast
  • Court TV
  • CNN
  • Discovery Channel
  • E!
  • Encore
  • Fox Sports Net
  • HBO (25%) with AOL-TW (75%)
  • Headline News
  • Home Shopping Network
  • International Channel
  • Learning Channel
  • MSG Network
  • Music Choice
  • Outdoor Life
  • Prevue Channel
  • Prime Sports Channel
  • QVC
  • Q2
  • Roadrunner
  • Speedvision
  • TCI
  • Telemundo
  • Time-Warner/TurnerUSA Network (10%)
  • Sci-Fi Network
  • Starz!
  • Starz! 2
  • Style
  • TNT
  • Travel Channel
  • TVKO

  • DC Comics


  • Warner Bros. Studio Stores
  • Movie World Theme Park (Australia) with AOL-TW, Village Roadshow)
Vivendi Universal (Seagram)
revenues not yet available

  • Sci-Fi network
  • USA network
  • mp3.com
  • Havas
  • Polygram
  • Motown
  • CineplexOdeon
  • United Cinema International (with AOL-TW)
  • Universal Studios
  • Universal TV
  • Vivendi Telecom
Liberty Media