These 6 Corporations Own Most Of The Media..

The ownership of the news media in the U.S. has been concentrated in the hands of just 6 incredibly powerful media corporations which control most of what we watch, hear and read every day.

media_consolidationThe 6 corporations that collectively control U.S. media today are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. Internationally, there are also other players including Bertelsmann AG and Sony. They own television networks, cable channels, movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, music labels and many successful websites.

Although it seems many do not care about who controls their media, it greatly impacts their view of the world and major events in it.

The average American watches 153 hours of television a month. Television is essentially proven to have an actual impact on your brain and thinking: they do not call it “programming” for no reason.

Fortunately, according to a poll released by Gallup last year, the majority of Americans (55%) still have little to no faith in the mainstream media, up slightly from 2012’s all-time high (60%). The increasing number and dedication of independent news, made possible by the internet, are shifting the paradigm.

List of the primary 6 corporations and what they own:

TIME WARNER

Home Box Office (HBO)
Time Inc.
CNN
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
CW Network (partial ownership)
TMZ
New Line Cinema
Time Warner Cable
Cinemax
Cartoon Network
TBS
TNT
America Online (not majority shareholder)
MapQuest
Moviefone
Castle Rock
Sports Illustrated
Fortune
Marie Claire
People Magazine
Boomerang
Adult Swim
DC Comics

THE WALT DISNEY CORPORATION

ABC Television Network
Disney Publishing
ESPN Inc.
Disney Channel
SOAPnet
A&E
Lifetime
NASCAR
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena Vista Theatrical Productions
Buena Vista Records
Disney Records
Hollywood Records
Miramax Films
Touchstone Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios
Buena Vista Games
Hyperion Books
Lucasfilm

VIACOM

Paramount Pictures
Paramount Home Entertainment
Black Entertainment Television (BET)
Comedy Central
Country Music Television (CMT)
Logo
MTV
MTV Canada
MTV2
Nick Magazine
Nick at Nite
Nick Jr.
Nickelodeon
Noggin
Spike TV
The Movie Channel
TV Land
VH1
Epix
Atom Films
Viva
The Music Factory (TMF)

NEWS CORPORATION

Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Fox Television Stations
New York Post
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Beliefnet
Fox Business Network
Fox Kids Europe
Fox News Channel
Fox Sports Net
Fox Television Network
FX
My Network TV
MySpace
News Limited News
Phoenix InfoNews Channel
Phoenix Movies Channel
Sky PerfecTV
Speed Channel
STAR TV India
STAR TV Taiwan
STAR World
Times Higher Education Supplement Magazine
Times Literary Supplement Magazine
Times of London
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox International
20th Century Fox Studios
20th Century Fox Television
BSkyB
DIRECTV
Wall Street Journal
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Interactive Media
FOXTEL
HarperCollins Publishers
The National Geographic Channel
National Rugby League
News Corp Australia
News Interactive
News Outdoor
Radio Veronica
ReganBooks
Sky Italia
Sky Radio Denmark
Sky Radio Germany
Sky Radio Netherlands
STAR
The Sun
Sunday Times
Zondervan

CBS CORPORATION

CBS News
CBS Sports
CBS Television Network
CNET
Showtime
The Movie Channel
FLIX
TV.com
CBS Radio Inc. (130 stations)
CBS Consumer Products
CBS Outdoor
CW Network (50% ownership)
Infinity Broadcasting
Simon & Schuster (Pocket Books, Scribner)
Westwood One Radio Network
Last.fm
Charles Scribner’s Sons
Pocket Books
Simon & Schuster

COMCAST

NBC Universal
Bravo
CNBC
E! Entertainment
NBC News
MSNBC
NBC Sports
AT&T
NBC Television Network
Oxygen
SciFi Magazine
Syfy (Sci Fi Channel)
Telemundo
USA Network
Weather Channel
Focus Features
NBC Universal Television Distribution
NBC Universal Television Studio
Paxson Communications (partial ownership)
Trio
Universal Parks & Resorts
Universal Pictures
Universal Studio Home Video
Golf Channel

Checkout this effective graphic, designed by Jason at Frugal Dad, showing how almost all media comes from only six sources that originated from 50 companies back in 1983. Those companies controlled the vast majority of all news media in the United States in that time, and today, in much of the world! Also, keep in mind, a few changes have happened since this infographic was created, they are outlined at the bottom.

NOTE: This infographic was created in 2011 and is not factoring in some key transactions. GE is no longer the majority shareholder for NBC or Comcast, thus Comcast has become the 6th. Time Warner also doesn’t own the majority of AOL, so Huffington Post isn’t directly affiliated with them.

But the fact that very few companies own so much demonstrates the need for independent sources, and to some extent a crowd-sourcing of news. In the end, the responsibility falls on each of us to network, learn and inform others, and while doing so fact-check whatever we read or hear.