The Entertainment State

The Current State of Media Concentration

How to become a Media Mega-Conglomerate:

2. Merge and Acquire.

Mergers and acqusitions have increased dramatically in size and frequency over the last 15 years.
Mergers are joint agreements mediated by the FCC and te FTC.
Acquisitions are purchases of one company by another through the purchase of stocks.

Now that you've deregulated, you can own all that stuff you couldn't legally own before.

So start buying:

1989 Time and Warner Communications Inc. merge

1989 Sony buys CBS Records and Columbia Pictures

1994 Viacom buys Paramount (which had just bought Simon and Schuster)

1994 GE buys NBC and RCA

1994 Bertelsmann buys Doubleday (BMG records)

1995 Seagram buys MCA/Universal from Matsushita

1995 July- Disney buys Capital Cities/ABC (19 Billion dollars)

1995 July- Wstinghouse buys CBS (5.4 Billion)

the 1996 telecom act

1996 Feb- MCA buys 50% of Interscope (conflict over Gangsta Rap)

1996 Jun- Westinghouse buys Infinity (#1 Radio network in U.S. with 83 stations)

1996 July- News Corporation buys New World (10 Fox stations making 22 total, covering 40% of the US)

1996 Aug- News Corporation buys Harper and Row Publishing

1996 Oct- Turner broadcasting merges with Time Warner (7.5 Billion)