Unit 8 – Creative Media Industry Awareness

• Aims: Describe cross-industry ownership in the Creative Media Sector

• Objectives: To understanding how big media conglomerates function, using a specific case study

Cross-Industry Ownership

• When one company or person has stakes in several areas of the media industry

• Examples?

• Richard Desmond owns OK! Magazine, Channel 5, the Daily Express and the Daily Star

• Rupert Murdoch: The Sun, The Sunday Times, The Times, 39% of BskyB, 20th Century Fox, Intermix Media Inc.

News Corps bid for BSkyB• When did it all begin? • Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is seeking to take full

control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB, by acquiring the 60.9% of the shares it does not already own

• Why did the sale matter so much?• News Corporation is the UK’s largest newspaper publisher,

printing more than one in three copies sold. Sky is the largest broadcaster, with turnover of £5.9bn against the BBC’s £4.8bn. The Murdoch family say a merger makes good financial sense, but critics say it would create a media group of unprecedented power, in which newspapers could be bundled with a Sky subscription, or Sky sports content could be shown exclusively on Times and Sun websites

News Corps bid for BSkyB• Doesn’t Murdoch already control Sky?• No, he owns 40% of the voting shares in News Corp. It in

turn owns 39.1% of BSkyB, with others holding the rest. Although Rupert’s son James is BSkyB’s chairman, the two companies are separate entities.

• What is the vital criterion?• Cross-media power. Cross-media ownership rarely triggers

competition law concerns, because TV and papers are considered distinct markets. Ofcom, though, is judging the deal by “public interest” considerations: whether the number of independent voices in media will be reduced as a result of a super-Murdoch company. This is known as the media plurality test.

News Corps bid for BSkyB

• BBC documentary on Murdoch and his ever increasing power and bid for world domination…

MEDIA GIANTS!