Viacom (VIAB)
Viacom was formed in 1971 by CBS Inc. to make popular TV system. After the Federal Communications Commission prohibited television networks from doing that. In 1976 it established the Showtime movie network, and in 1985 it bought the MTV networks, including the music video channels MTV and VH-1 and the Nickolodeon. In 1987 Viacom became owned inferior to the National Amusements Inc. movie theater chain. It continued to expand, acquiring more radio and television stations, adding cable channels and franchises, and producing films for Showtime and several popular television series for the networks. In 1994 Viacom got Paramount Communications Inc., a media conglomerate that had been founded in 1958 as Gulf + Western Corporation.
Among the major businesses Paramount brought to Viacom were Paramount Pictures Corporation, Simon & Schuster, Inc., and Madison Square Garden (later sold by Viacom). Viacom’s merger with Blockbuster added video rental and music retail operations to its considerable film, cable, television, and publishing holdings, making it one of the most diversified entertainment companies in the world. In 1995 Viacom’s Paramount unit and Chris-Craft Industries launched a new broadcasting network called United Paramount Network. Viacom was originally owned by Charles George Bluhdorn, but his ex- friend Sumner Redstone Talked him into buying out the company. At first, it seemed like a sweet deal, but then he found that the merger between his company and Viacom would dominate the stock market- or at least the entertainment part of it.
Vertical integration in studio system The term "vertical integration" refers to the structure of a marketplace, which is integrated (rather than segregated) at a variety of crucial levels. In the case of the motion picture industry, the studio system established a market in which the studios owned production facilities, distribution outlets, and theaters. In other words, the studios controlled every level of the marketplace from the top down, from production to exhibition. "Vertical integration" began in the 1910s and inspired the postwar consolidation of the studio system as national distribution companies, such as Paramount merged with production companies, such as Famous Players and Lasky and subsequently began purchasing theater chains. All of the major studios in Hollywood (Paramount, MGM, Warner Bros., etc) owned theater chains; the minors, Universal, Columbia, and United artists, did not.
During the mid 2000’s until late 2012, media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper company, News Corp, conceived one the biggest scandals in media history to date. Speculation of phone hacking occurred in November of 2005 when the Royal’s officials reported possible voice mail phone hacking to the police because News of the World released a story about Prince William hurting his knee. The victims of the phone hacking scandal not only included the Royal family but also politicians, celebrities, people who were murdered, and family members of soldiers who died during combat totaling the victim list to 3,870. The entire duration of the investigation revealed not only disturbing information about the conducts committed by journalist, but the conspiring with private investigators and the London police enforcement, also known as the Scotland Yard, to cover up corruptions on all ends (CNN, 2012).
ABC Family was launched in 1977 by a televangelist named Pat Robertson’s as a Christian Broadcasting Network(CBN) focused mostly on religious programming, until 1981 when it was changed to CBN Cable Network and instead began to include a mix of recent and classic family oriented films and series while also keeping few religious programs. At this time ABC Family already reached one million homes. It was not until 7 years later in 1988 that the word “family” was actually included in the channel’s name and became known as The CBN Family Channel. Soon the network gained significant popularity and profit thus it was spun off to a new company, International Family Entertainment Inc., to keep CBN’s non profit status safe. By 1990 it was called the Family Channel. Then in 1998 it was renamed to Fox Family Channel, until 2001 when Disney bought and rebranded ABC Family. In 2006, a new slogan was developed under ABC Family: A New Kind of Family It became the American basic cable and satellite television channel owned by a division of Disney-ABC Television part of Walt Disney Company, that we know today as simply “ABC Family”.
Walt Disney began in 1923 with a short film called Alice’s Wonderland. It was co-owned by Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney. Disney moved forward into the future with very popular filmed entertainment such as Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi and so many more until the death of Walt Disney in 1966. Walt Disney was then successfully supervised by Walt’s older brother, Roy Disney, until his death in 1971 after the completion of his brother’s dream, Walt Disney World. It was in 1983 that Disney expanded its operations to include the Disney Channel and the Touchstone Pictures film label. When the new president and CEO, Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, came onto the scene they set out to maximize the company’s assets by opening its famous movies up to the TV syndication market and video cassettes. With the classics easily accessible and available at a lower cost the company grew to greater heights. The success continued in 1988 when Disney movies hit new box office heights bringing in more than $100 million. Then between the years of 1989 to 1994 chart toppers like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and the Lion King launched the entertainment company to even greater heights. The films were grossing between $200 and $783 million...
Polycom was founded in December of 1990 and went public in 1996. Its global workforce is comprised of approximately 3200 employees. Revenues for 2010 were posted at $1.2 billion. Polycom prides itself in being
Netflix utilizes a number of different advertising methods. Netflix created a coupon in the form of an enlarged movie ticket offering a free month of service. These “movie tickets” are given out at cash registers at all Best Buy stores and are included in packing boxes of most of the major DVD player manufacturers (Sony, Philips, Toshiba, Panasonic, RCA, etc.). Best Buy’s website also has a link directly to Netflix which is under the “DVD rental service” drop down menu. Each DVD mailer sleeve from Netflix includes a tear off “tell a friend” certificate with a promotion code that provides the bearer with a free month of service. At one time, Netflix sold banner ads on their websites. However, they abandoned this strategy after three months because the revenue stream was not sufficient to cover the cost of maintaining the ads. Netflix also has an aggressive affiliate program. The affiliate program encourages other websites to provide links to Netflix and offers a referral fee for linked new members at a range of $9-$12 per member. This fee is dependent upon the number of referrals provided in a month. If a site is successful at delivering greater than 200 new customers in a month, the referral fee is negotiable, up to $30 per new customer. Netflix is a straightforward company. It rents DVDs via the Internet and sends them to you through the U.S. Postal Service. For a flat fee of $19.95 a month, you can build a list of movies at the Netflix.com Web site that you want sent to your home. The company sends you the first three along with prepaid return envelopes. When you're ready to send them back, you put them in the return envelopes and drop them into any mailbox. The minute the return is processed, the next one, two, or three DVDs are on their way. Depending on where you live, the turnaround time is two to five days.
In 1972, Charles Dolan and Gerald Levin of Sterling Manhattan Cable launched the nation's first pay-TV network, Home Box Office (HBO). This venture led to the creation of a national satellite distribution system that used a newly approved domestic satellite transmission. Satellites changed the business dramatically, paving the way for the explosive growth of program networks.
Jimirro idea is to create cable television channel that broadcast Disney Studio films, but Walt Disney Company rejected Jimirro’s idea because the company was busy developing Epcot theme park (“The Disney Channel,” n.d.). However, few years later Walt Disney Company reviewed Jimirro proposal and it start a partnership Group W satellite in 1982, and it broadcast the premium channel in 1983 (“The Disney Channel,” n.d.). Disney Channel started as a pay service and its first program was Good Morning, Mickey, which is series of animated cartoon, launched in April, 1983 (“The Disney Channel,” n.d.). Disney Channel became rapidly popular among American audiences, indeed there were more than half million Americans subscribed to Disney Channel by September of 1983, the number of audience increased to five million by 1990 (“A Salute to Disney Channel,” n.d.). In addition, Walt Disney expanded Disney Channel broadcasting from 16 hours per day in 1983 to 24 hours per day in December 1986, due to Disney Channel popularity (“A Salute to Disney Channel,”
Disney was first formed in 1923 when founders Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, created an animated short called Alice Comedies (“The Walt Disney Studios – History, n.d.). Years later in 1937, Disney established a large following from the production of their first ever full-length animated movie, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (“The Walt Disney Studios – History, n.d.). The large revenues that flowed in from this production allowed Walt Disney to grow his business into the multimillion-dollar company that it is today.
The American motion picture studio was formed in 1912 by Carl Laemmle who was a film exhibitor, and producer. The studio started off creating low budget films, until it was purchased by the Music Corporation of America, which formed it into the most profitable and largest company for films and television in the world.
Byte Products, Inc., headquartered in the midwestern United States, is regarded as one of the largest volume supplier for the production of electronic components used in personal computers. Byte Products, Inc., was a privately owned firm that has now entered to be a publicly traded company. The majority of the stockholders are the initial owners of Byte, when it was still privately owned. The products that Byte produces are primarily found in computers used for business and engineering applications. Byte Products, Inc., has been the leader in this industry for the past six year with consistent yearly revenues of 12% and total sales of approximately $265 million. Byte also has 32% of the market share.
In 1965, when the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc. merged to create PepsiCo, their revenue was $510 million. Today, it stands at more
Media ownership matters because the media is a powerful tool that can be used to influence a whole society. When the media is in the hands of five companies, it becomes dangerous because they essentially control what we see in television, in the newspaper, on the streets, etc. Right now, the media is dominated by five companies: Time Warner, Walt Disney Company, Viacom, News Corporation, and Bertelsmann AG. These five conglomerates own various companies in different industries. Media conglomerates are companies that companies in various forms of mass media. For example, Walt Disney Company owns Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Hollywood Records, five stations on ESPN Radio, Disney on Ice, Marvel Entertainment, ABC Television Network, ABC News, ABC Sports, Disney Channel, ESPN, ABC Family, Disneyland resorts in multiple countries, and much more. Time Warner owns Warner Bros. Pictures, the CW Television Network, HBO,
Tyco Incorporated w as founded in 1960 by Arthur J . Rosenberg, situated in Waltham, Massachusetts. In 1982, to strengthen the company, Tyco w ere divided into three business segments which are fire protection, electronics and packaging. Tyco reorganize ed the company again in the 1990s which included electrical and electronic components, health-care and specialty products, fire and security services, and flow control. By 2000 Tyco I nc., had acquired more than three major companies such as ADT, the CI T Group, and Raychem.
Diverse business and industrial houses that originally had interests limited in oil and financial services only, had now started investing more into the media industries. These industries primarily had private ownership. In the late 1980s a new form of cooperation emerged whereby there was cross –promotion and cross-selling between the different corporations so that there would an increase in the overall sales. With the developments in technologies new sources of cultural production emerged making the ownership more complex. In many of these industries such as radio, television and films, there was the emergence of oligopolistic ownership emerging which was leading to the creation of huge conglomerates. (pg195) In the USA, for instance, large corporations such as the RCA (Radio Corporation of America) became one of the leading companies overtaking the various media forms like publishing and newspaper companies and Hollywood studies emerged as an oligopoly which was integrated vertically. This vertical integration led to the development of certain new technologies such as recording and playback. There was also cross media ownership which made the system very complex. Film studios like MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) also held considerable interest in music industry. In the 1980s media houses began to invest more into consumer electronics companies. For instance,