90% of what Americans watch, read and listen to is controlled by 6 media conglomerates. Not that we were not in the loop about that. But we need to admit that any attempt to find updated statistics on the top ten global media giants constantly fails. Conspiracy of these same giants? Well..
Turning brick after brick of the online wall, one can come up with a more or less clear picture. However, this doesn’t save the researcher from glaring errors like the one made recently by Frugal Dad and highlighted by Fastcodesign. E.g.: GE does not own Comcast.
One has little doubt that the Big Six exude influence on the rest of world. However, what about the major players from rest of the world? No surprise here. Most top-grossing media businesses still come from the developed world.
Axel Springer AG is one of the largest newspaper publishing companies in Europe, claiming to have over 150 newspapers and magazines in over 30 countries in Europe.
Another German business Bertelsmann is one of the world’s largest media companies. It owns RTL Group, which is one of the two major private TV companies in both Germany and the Netherlands and also owning assets in Belgium, France, UK, Spain, Czech and Hungary. Bertelsmann also owns Gruner+Jahr, Germany’s biggest popular magazine publisher, including popular news magazine Stern and a 26% share in investigative news magazine Der Spiegel. Bertelsmann also owns Random House, a book publisher, #1 in the English-speaking world and #2 in Germany.
One more European giant is Vivendi that owns Canal + Group and Universal Music Group.
Steppes in Sync 