EOTO: Media Consolidation and Market Monopolization

Have you ever wondered who controls our media and how much of it they control? In the early 80s, 90% of media in the United States was controlled by 50 companies. Today, the same 90% is controlled by 4. This is due to the process of media consolidation. Media consolidation is the process of networks owning other networks, controlling their properties and marketing them under one name.

A good example of this is Disney. Today, everything is more or less under the influence of the media giant. Disney's umbrella consists of major names such as Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Miramax, Pixar, ABC, ESPN, and most recently 20th Century Fox. So you can be watching ABC News, waiting for an important story to be aired. But if Disney doesn't like that story, it won't air.

The idea of Media consolidation created the term "Family of Networks". This term refers to networks having other networks to air their content on. ESPN is a prime example of this. They air sports and other events across the following networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN Deportes, ESPN +, SEC Network, ACC, Network, and ABC. This is also done by Fox, CBS, and NBC.

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EOTO: Cord Cutting

The advent of streaming services has changed the way media is produced and distributed. Instead of watching scheduled programing on cable, many people watch whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want thanks to services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, ESPN+ and Disney+. This has caused many to cancel their cable subscriptions and only pay for streaming services. This is known as cord cutting. Cord cutting is an effective way to save between $24-$100 on TV. With using streaming services, you can watch the channels and shows that you want to watch, eliminating channels that you don't use. Streaming also takes away most of the ads that you see when watching cable, reducing interruptions. Streaming allows you to watch whatever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want. You aren't confined to your house waiting for your favorite show to come on. Cord cutting also does as its name says, it removes all the cords and hassle that come with cable tv. ...

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The streets are quiet in Pittsburgh, PA. For the last month, the Steel City has been effectively shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The shutdown ordered by Governor Tom Wolf, has caused many businesses deemed unessential to cease opperations from their offices, while others are able to continue via Zoom and other platforms. This includes Carmeuse, one of the leading lime producers in the world. As COO of Carmeuse North America, Jack Fahler has continued to work from his home in Gibsonia, 25 minutes away from his office on 11 Stanwix Street. “It’s really crazy, it’s like a bad joke”, he says. “Something that has surprised me is that people are still complaining about what the government is doing”. Like many companies, Carmeuse has continued to operate using Skype, allowing Fahler to participate in meetings with his employees, as well as the owners of the company who are based in Belgium. While Fahler spends most of his time in the office during the pandemic, his wi...

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When we think of Cable TV, we generally think of the following: big networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX, if we have more HBOs than our neighbor, how the last season of GOT ended, or how much is all of this gonna cost me. To fully understand how Cable TV took off and became the industry it is, we need to go back to the beginning. Cable TV started back in 1948 in Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Arkansas. By 1952, there were about 14,000 cable subscriptions across the nation. That number grew to around 850,000 subscriptions by the 1960s. In 1972, HBO became the first pay network, meaning that you could have 5 HBOs, 3 HBOs, or no HBOs depending on how much you are paying. Also in 1972, the FCC began regulation on cable. The Cable Act of 1984 helped the industry grow even more. Today, we have around 800 programing networks following the advent of HDTV in the early 2000s. People can watch their shows whenever they want now with DVR, which allows them to record episodes that they...

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