Israel In Israel,
Arnon Mozes owns the most widespread Hebrew newspaper,
Yediot Aharonot, the most widespread Russian newspaper
Vesty, the most popular Hebrew news website
Ynet, and 17% of the cable TV firm
HOT. Moreover, Mozes owns the Reshet TV firm, which is one of the two operators of the most popular channel in Israel, Channel 2.
Americas Brazil In Brazil, the concentration of media ownership seems to have manifested itself very early. Dr. Venício A. de Lima noted in 2003: Lima points to other factors that would make media concentration easier, particularly in
broadcasting: the failure of legal norms that limit the equity interest of the same economic group in various broadcasting organizations; a short period (five years) for resell broadcasting concessions, facilitating the concentration by the big media groups through the purchase of independent stations, and no restrictions to the formation of national
broadcasting networks. He cites examples of horizontal, vertical, crossed and "in cross" concentration (a Brazilian peculiarity). •
Vertical concentration: integration of the different phases of production and distribution, eliminating the work of independent producers. In Brazil, unlike the United States, it is common for a TV network to produce, advertise, market and distribute most of its programming. TV Globo is known for its
soap operas exported to dozens of countries; it keeps under permanent contract the actors, authors, and the whole production staff. The final product is broadcast by a network of newspapers, magazines, radio stations and websites owned by
Globo Organizations. •
Cross ownership: ownership of different kinds of media (TV, newspapers, magazines, etc.) by the same group. Initially, the phenomenon occurred in radio, television and print media, with emphasis on the group of "
Diários Associados." At a later stage appeared the
RBS Group (affiliated to TV Globo), with operations in the markets of
Rio Grande do Sul and
Santa Catarina. Besides being the owner of radio and television stations, and of the main local newspapers, it has two
Internet portals. The opinions of its commentators are thus replicated by a multimedia system that makes it extremely easy to spread the point of view advocated by the group. •
Monopoly "in cross": reproduction into local level, of the particularities of
cross ownership. Research carried out in the early 1990s, detected the presence of this singularity in 18 of the 26
Brazilian states. Manifests itself by the presence of a TV channel with a large audience, often linked to TV Globo and by the existence of two daily newspapers, in which the one with the largest circulation is linked to the major television channel and to a network of radio stations, that almost always reproduces articles and the editorial line of the newspaper "
O Globo". In 2002, another survey (which did not include pay TV), found the presence of the "monopoly in cross" in 13 major markets in Brazil. The
UNESCO office in
Brasília has expressed its concern over the existence of an outdated code of telecommunications (1962), which no longer meets the expectations generated by the
Brazilian Constitution of 1988 in the political and social fields, and the inability of the Brazilian government to establish an
independent regulatory agency to manage the media. Attempts in this direction have been pointed by the
mainstream media as attacks on
freedom of expression, the trend of the political left in the entire Latin American continent.
Mexico In Mexico there are only two national broadcast television service companies,
Televisa and
Azteca. These two broadcasters together administer 434 of the 461 total commercial television stations in the country (94.14%). Though concern about the existence of a duopoly had been around for some time, a press uproar sparked in 2006, when
a controversial reform to the Federal Radio and Television Law, seriously hampered the entry of new competitors, like
Cadena Tres. Televisa also owns subscription TV enterprises and
SKY, a publishing company , and the
Televisa Radio broadcast radio network, creating a de facto media monopoly in many regions of the country.
United States An infographic created by Jason at Frugal Dad states that in 1983, 90% of US media was controlled by 50 companies, and that in 2011, 90% was controlled by just 6 companies. One of the companies listed,
News Corporation, was split into two separate companies on June 28, 2013, with publishing assets and Australian media assets going to
News Corp and broadcasting and media assets going to
21st Century Fox. In the United States, movie production has been dominated by major studios since the early 20th century; before that, there was a period in which
Edison's Trust monopolized the industry. The music and television industries recently witnessed cases of media consolidation, with
Sony Music Entertainment's parent company merging their music division with Bertelsmann AG's
BMG to form
Sony BMG and Tribune's
The WB and CBS Corp.'s
UPN merging to form
The CW. In the case of Sony BMG, there existed a "Big Five" (now "
Big Four") of major
record companies, while The CW's creation was an attempt to consolidate ratings and stand up to the "Big Four" of American
network (terrestrial) television (this despite the fact that the CW was, in fact, partially owned by one of the Big Four in CBS). In television, the vast majority of broadcast and basic cable networks, over a hundred in all, are controlled by seven corporations:
Fox Corporation,
The Walt Disney Company (which includes the ABC, ESPN, FX and Disney brands),
Paramount Skydance,
Comcast (which owns
NBCUniversal),
Warner Bros. Discovery, the
E. W. Scripps Company,
Cablevision (now known as
Altice USA), or some combination thereof. There may also be some large-scale owners in an industry that are not the causes of monopoly or oligopoly.
iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel Communications), especially since the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, acquired many
radio stations across the United States, and came to own more than 1,200 stations. However, the radio broadcasting industry in the United States and elsewhere can be regarded as oligopolistic regardless of the existence of such a player. Because radio stations are local in reach, each licensing a specific part of spectrum from the
FCC in a specific local area, any local market is served by a limited number of stations. In most countries, this system of licensing makes many
markets local oligopolies. The similar market structure exists for television broadcasting, cable systems and newspaper industries, all of which are characterized by the existence of large-scale owners. Concentration of ownership is often found in these industries. In a 2020 article, Herzog and Scerbinina argued that CNN's coverage in 2017 of a potential merger between its parent company Time Warner and AT&T was "self-centered, self-promoting, and self-legitimizing."
Venezuela About 70% of Venezuelan TV and radio stations are privately owned, while only about 5% or less of these stations are currently state-owned. The remaining stations are mostly community owned.
VTV was the only state TV channel in Venezuela only about a decade ago. For the last decade, through the present day, the Venezuelan government operates and owns five more stations. Commercial outlets completely rule over the radio sector. However, the Venezuelan government funds a good number of radio shows and TV stations. The primary newspapers of Venezuela are private companies that are frequently condemning of their government. These newspapers being produced in Venezuela do not have a large following. Broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada are regulated by the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), an independent governing agency that aims to serve the needs and interests of citizens, industries, interest groups and the government. The CRTC does not regulate newspapers or magazines. Apart from a relatively small number of
community broadcasters, media in Canada are primarily owned by a small number of groups, including
Bell Canada, the Shaw family (via
Corus Entertainment and
Shaw Communications),
Rogers Communications,
Quebecor, and the government-owned
CBC/Radio-Canada. Each of these companies holds a diverse mix of television, specialty television, and radio operations. Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and Quebecor also engage in the telecommunications industry with their ownership of internet providers, television providers, and mobile carriers, while Rogers is also involved in publishing. In 2007, CTVglobemedia, Rogers Media and Quebecor all expanded significantly through the acquisitions of
CHUM Limited,
CityTV and
Osprey Media, respectively. In 2010,
Canwest Global Communications, having filed for bankruptcy, sold its television assets to Shaw (through a new subsidiary,
Shaw Media) and spun off its newspaper holdings into
Postmedia Network, a new company founded by the
National Post's CEO
Paul Godfrey. Later that year, Bell also announced that it would acquire the remaining shares of CTVglobemedia (which was originally majority owned by Bell when it was formed in 2001; Bell had reduced its stake in the following years), forming
Bell Media. Between 1990 and 2005 there were a number of media corporate mergers and takeovers in Canada. For example, in 1990, 17.3% of daily newspapers were independently owned; whereas in 2005, 1% were. These changes, among others, caused the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications to launch a study of Canadian
news media in March 2003. (This topic had been examined twice in the past, by the Davey Commission (1970) and the
Kent Commission (1981), both of which produced recommendations that were never implemented in any meaningful way.) The Senate Committee's final report, released in June 2006, expressed concern about the effects of the current levels of news media ownership in Canada. Specifically, the committee discussed their concerns regarding the following trends: the potential of media ownership concentration to limit news diversity and reduce news quality; the CRTC and Competition Bureau's ineffectiveness at stopping media ownership concentration; the lack of federal funding for the CBC and the broadcaster's uncertain mandate and role; diminishing employment standards for journalists (including less job security, less journalistic freedom, and new contractual threats to intellectual property); a lack of Canadian training and research institutes; and difficulties with the federal government's support for print media and the absence of funding for the internet-based news media. The report provided 40 recommendations and 10 suggestions (for areas outside of federal government jurisdiction), including legislation
amendments that would trigger automatic reviews of a proposed media merger if certain thresholds are reached, and CRTC regulation revisions to ensure that access to the broadcasting system is encouraged and that a diversity of news and information programming is available through these services. administered by the
Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA). Even with laws in place Australia has a high concentration of media ownership. Ownership of national newspapers and those of each capital city are dominated by
News Corp Australia and
Nine Entertainment. Although much of the everyday mainstream news is drawn from the
Australian Associated Press, all the privately owned media outlets still compete with each other for exclusive
pop culture news. Rural and regional media is dominated by
Australian Community Media, with significant holdings in all states and territories.
Daily Mail & General Trust operate the
Nova Entertainment commercial radio networks in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia. Formed in 1996, it has since become one of the largest radio media companies in the country. The company currently own more than 60 radio stations across
New South Wales,
Victoria,
Queensland,
South Australia and
Western Australia. There are rules governing foreign ownership of Australian media and these rules were loosened by the
Howard government.
Media Watch is an independent media watchdog televised on the public broadcaster
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which is one of two government-administered channels, the other being
Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). In late 2011, the
Finkelstein Inquiry into media regulation was launched, and reported its findings back to the federal government in early 2012.
New Zealand Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) formerly published the
Wellington-based newspapers
The Dominion and
The Evening Post, in addition to purchasing a large shareholding in pay TV broadcaster Sky Media Limited in 1997. These two newspapers merged to form the
Dominion Post in 2002, and in 2003, sold its entire print media division to
Fairfax New Zealand. The remainder of the company officially merged with Sky Media Limited in 2005 to form
Sky Network Television Limited. When INL ceased publishing the
Auckland Star in 1991,
The New Zealand Herald became the
Auckland region's sole daily newspaper. The
New Zealand Herald and the
New Zealand Listener, formerly privately held by the Wilson & Horton families, was sold to
APN News & Media in 1996. The long-running news syndication agency
NZPA announced that it would close down in 2011, with operations to be taken over by 3 separate agencies, APN's APNZ, Fairfax's FNZN and
AAP's NZN, all owned by Australian parent companies. In 2014, APN's New Zealand division officially changed its name to
NZME, in order to reflect the company's convergence with its radio division The Radio Network. As of early 2015,
Fairfax New Zealand and
NZME have a near duopoly on newspapers and magazines in New Zealand. In May 2016, NZME and Fairfax NZ announced merger talks, pending Commerce Commission approval. The merger was abandoned in 2018 following a Court of Appeal ruling that judged that the "detriments clearly outweigh benefits, and not by a small margin". In early 2025, Canadian-born billionaire
Jim Grenon purchased a significant stake in NZME, which increased to 16% as of August 2025. The union for NZME journalists,
E tū, and existing company directors warned Grenon against potential editorial influence. Commercial radio stations are largely divided up between
MediaWorks New Zealand and NZME. MediaWorks' TV division, which includes
TV3 and
C4 (now
The Edge TV), were purchased by
Discovery, Inc. in 2020. Following Discovery's merger with
WarnerMedia to form
Warner Bros. Discovery,
Discovery New Zealand was merged into the new company. In 2024, Warner Bros Discovery shut down Three's news service
Newshub, which was replaced by
Stuff's
ThreeNews evening bulletin.
Television New Zealand, although 100% state-owned, has been run on an almost entirely commercial basis since the late 1980s, in spite of previous attempts to steer it towards a more
public service-oriented role. Its primary public-service outlet,
TVNZ7, ceased broadcasting in 2012 due to non-renewal of funding, and the youth-oriented
TVNZ6 was rebranded as the short-lived commercial channel
TVNZ U. In addition, the now-defunct TVNZ channels Kidzone and
TVNZ Heartland were only available through
Sky Network Television and not on the
Freeview platform.
Sky Network Television has had an effective monopoly on
pay TV in New Zealand since its nearest rival
Saturn Communications (later part of
TelstraClear and now
Vodafone New Zealand) began wholesaling Sky content in 2002. However, in 2011, TelstraClear CEO Allan Freeth warned it would review its wholesale agreement with Sky unless it allowed TelstraClear to purchase non-Sky content. On 1 August 2025, Sky acquired Warner Bros. Discovery's New Zealand assets including
Three and
ThreeNow, and created a new free-to-air television subsidiary known as
Sky Free.
India In India a few political parties also own media organizations, for example the proprietors of
Kalaignar TV are close aides of Tamil Nadu's former Chief Minister
M. Karunanidhi. So is also the case with
Sun TV. SRM university owner Pachamuthu, a member of Parliament, has stakes in Pudhiyathalaimurai News Channel. AMMK General Secretary TTV Dinakaran, MLA's close aides run Jaya TV.
Sakshi TV a Telugu channel in Andhra Pradesh is owned by ex-chief minister's son and family.
United Kingdom In Britain and Ireland, Reach has control of a large proportion of regional media, including through subsidiary
Northcliffe Media, in addition to large shares in
ITN and formerly
GCap Media before it became
Global Radio.
Reach own five major national titles, the
Daily Mirror,
Sunday Mirror and
The Sunday People, and the Scottish
Sunday Mail and
Daily Record as well as over 100 regional newspapers. They claim to have a monthly digital reach of 73 million people. They also own
OK! magazine, the
Daily Express, and the
Daily Star. After they were acquired by Reach in 2018 from Richard Desmond's
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), the company also own the
Daily Mail and
The Mail on Sunday,
Ireland on Sunday, and free London daily
Metro.
Richard Desmond used to own
OK! magazine, the
Daily Express, and the
Daily Star. Desmond used to own
Channel 5; on 1 May 2014 the channel was acquired by
Viacom for £450 million (US$759 million). By the mid-2010s, many of the most popular commercial stations are owned by
Global who produce their own news service, most notably for
LBC and
LBC News but also for
Capital FM,
Heart,
Smooth,
Gold,
Radio X,
Capital Xtra,
Classic FM and others.
Rupert Murdoch owns tabloid
The Sun as well as the broadsheet
The Times and
Sunday Times. Murdoch formerly owned
News of the World, following a hacking scandal and it closed in July 2011. As a consequence to this the following
Leveson Inquiry lead to Murdoch from looking to increase his 39% share of satellite broadcasting network
BSkyB to being to selling his share. In 2019, despite the British government granting formal permission for a new take over of Sky (conditional on the divestiture of Sky News), Fox were outbid by American conglomerate Comcast. The
Evening Standard and former print publication
The Independent are both partly owned by British-Russian media boss
Evgeny Lebedev.
The Guardian is owned by Guardian Media Group.
BBC News produces news for its
television channels and
radio stations.
Independent Television News (ITN) produces news for
ITV,
Channel 4 and
Channel 5.
Independent Radio News, has a contract with
Sky News to produce news for the most popular
commercial radio stations. National and local radio station ownership is dominated by the aforementioned
Global Media & Entertainment as well as
Bauer Media,
News Broadcasting and the UK's only public service radio broadcaster the
BBC. The United Kingdom is part of the
Council of Europe.
Wider-Europe Since the 1980s, a significant debate has developed at the European level concerning the regulation of media ownership and the principles to be adopted to regulate media ownership concentration. Both the
Council of Europe (CoE) and the
European Union (EU) have tried to formulate a distinctive and comprehensive
media policy, including on the issue of concentration. However, the emphasis of both the organisations was more on strengthening media diversity and pluralism than on limiting concentration, even though they have often expressed the need for common European media concentration regulations. and
Sanoma). These groups generally control a high market share in the countries in which they operate, and have gradually emerged through the acquisition of existing channels or by establishing new companies in countries in which they were not already present. The four groups RTL Group, CME, Modern Times Group and Sanoma are major players (in the top 4 regarding audience share) in 19 European countries (RTL Group, CME and Modern Times Group are major players in 17 countries). In the monitoring carried out in 2014, 7 of 9 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, the UK) scored a high risk in audience concentration.
Belarus Armenia European Union Although there is no specific media concentration legislation at the European level, a number of existing legal instruments such as the
Amsterdam Protocol, the
Audiovisual Media Services Directive and actions programs contribute directly and indirectly to curbing media concentration at EU level. In 2002, the European Parliament tried to revitalize the efforts on regulating media concentration at the European level and adopted a resolution on media concentration which called on the European Commission to launch a broad and comprehensive consultation on media pluralism and media concentration and to prepare a Green Paper on the issue by the end of 2003. The European Commission failed to meet this deadline. In October 2009, a
European Union Directive was proposed to set for all member states common and higher standards for
media pluralism and
freedom of expression. The proposal was put to a vote in the
European Parliament and rejected by just three votes. The directive was supported by the
liberal-centrists, the
progressives and the
greens, and was opposed by the
European People's Party. The "Independent Study on Indicators for Media Pluralism in the Member States – Towards a Risk-Based Approach" provided a prototype of indicators and country reports for 27 EU member states. After years of refining and preliminary testings, the study resulted in the
Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), a yearly monitoring carried out by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Freedom at the
European University Institute in Florence on a variety of aspects affecting media pluralism, including also the concentration of media ownership is considered. To assess the risk that media ownership concentration in a given country may actually hinder media pluralism, the MPM takes into account three specific elements: • Horizontal concentration, that is concentration of media ownership within a given media sector (press, audio-visual, etc.); • Cross-media concentration across different media markets; •
Transparency of media ownership.
Czech Republic In the
Czech Republic about 80% of the newspapers and magazines were owned by German and Swiss corporations in 2007, as the two main press groups
Vltava Labe Media and
Mafra were (completely or partly) controlled by the German group
Rheinisch-Bergische Druckerei- und Verlagsgesellschaft (Mediengruppe
Rheinische Post), but were both later purchased by Czech-owned conglomerates
Penta Investments and
Agrofert in 2015 and 2013 respectively. Several major media previously owned by Swiss company
Ringier became Czech-owned through their acquisition by the
Czech News Center in 2013. •
Vltava Labe Media, a subsidiary of
Penta Investments, that owns the tabloids
ŠÍP and
ŠÍP EXTRA, 73 regional dailies
Deník and other 26 weeklies and that is major
shareholder of publishing houses
Astrosat and
Melinor and 100% owner of
Metropol and also partly controls the distribution of all the prints through
PNS, a.s. which was previously part of the German ''
(that controls also the German Neue Presse Verlags
, the Polish Polskapresse
and the Slovak Petit Press''). •
Mafra, a subsidiary of
Kaprain Chemical (that owns the centre-right dailies
Dnes,
Lidové noviny, the local edition of the
freesheet Metro, the periodical
14dní, several monthly magazines, the TV
music channel Óčko, the
radio stations Expresradio and
Rádio Classic FM, several web portals and partly controls, together with
Vltava-Labe-Press and
Czech News Center, the distribution company
PNS) The weekly
Respekt is published by
Respekt Media. The national television market is dominated by four terrestrial stations, two public (
Czech TV1 and
Czech TV2) and two private (
NOVA TV and
Prima TV), which draw 95% of audience share. Concerning the diversity of output, this is limited by a series of factors: the average low level of professional education among Czech journalists is compensated by "informal professionalization", leading to a degree of conformity in approaches; political parties hold strong ties in Czech media, especially print, where more than 50% of Czech journalists identify with the Right, while only 16% express sympathy for the Left; It also owns 29.9% of the
Sunday Tribune. Ireland editions of British newspapers are also present, such as
The Irish Sun,
Irish Mirror, and the Irish edition of
The Sunday Times Broadcast media is divided between state owned
RTÉ, which operates several radio stations and television channels and started digital radio and television services in the early 2010s,
TG4, an Irish language broadcaster, and
TV3, a commercial television operator.
Virgin Media News also produces news for its channels.
Denis O'Brien an Irish billionaire with a fortune partly accumulated through the
Esat Digifone licence controversy, formed Communicorp Group Ltd in 1989, with the company currently owning 42 radio stations in 8 European countries, including Ireland's
Newstalk,
Today FM,
Dublin's 98FM,
SPIN 1038 and
SPIN South West. In January 2006, O'Brien took a stake in Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (IN&M). As of May 2012, he holds a 29.9% stake in the company, making him the largest shareholder; the O'Reilly family's stake is around 13%.
Italy Silvio Berlusconi, the former
Prime Minister of Italy, is the major shareholder of – by far – Italy's biggest (and
de facto only) private free TV company,
Mediaset; Italy's biggest publisher,
Mondadori; and Italy's biggest advertising company, . One of Italy's nationwide dailies,
Il Giornale, is owned by his brother,
Paolo Berlusconi, and another,
Il Foglio, by his former wife,
Veronica Lario. Berlusconi has often been criticized for using the media assets he owns to advance his political career.
Latvia Romania Slovenia ==See also==