Ownership Patterns

Public service broadcasting have taken up a huge share of the media market in Britain. For example the BBC. The BBC has a legal obligation to inform, to educate and to make sure that all sections of society are catered for. The power of media owners is also restricted by the government or state. For example, in some societies, owners are not allowed to own too many different types of media. A lot of countries also have cross ownership rules which prevents people from owning more than one type of media. Television, newspapers and radio in Britain require legal controls and rules are imposed by the Press Council and Ofcom.

Commercial broadcasting systems usually need to meet minimum standards to receive a license or operating concession. These conditions vary however they usually relate to matters such as provision for education, local language or culture, news and information, political or other access opportunities and minority needs.

The image below is a good demonstration of the process of how the media has become owned by a variety of corporations. I will briefly sum up what it is about in text as well.

6 major media corporations are responsible for 90 % of what we read, watch and listen to. The companies who own this are Disney, Viacom, GE, Newscorp, CBS and Time Warner.

By 1983 50 companies owned 90% of American media companies. The six companies consolidated that market share from 2011.
They control 70% of cable broadcasting. The other 30% is from 3,762 infinitely smaller companies.
In 2001.AOL spent 124 Billion to buy Time Warner.