Disney as a conglomerate

Disney as a conglomerate

Disney is a conglomerate

A media conglomerate, media group or media institution is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet. Media conglomerates strive for policies that facilitate their control of the markets across the globe.

Disney owns

• Walt Disney Studios
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment
• Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group:
• Touchstone Pictures
• Pixar Animation Studios
• Lucasfilm
• ESPN
• ABC Entertainment Group
• Marvel Entertainment
• Disney Music Group

The media industry is dominated by 'The Big Six'

Just how dominant are 'The Big Six' studios?

How many independent films can you spot?

Why might conglomerates be seen as a negative?

Global conglomerates can at times have a progressive impact on culture, especially when they enter nations that had been tightly controlled by corrupt crony media systems (as in much of Latin America) or nations that had significant state censorship over media (as in parts of Asia). The global commercial-media system is radical in that it will respect no tradition or custom, on balance, if it stands in the way of profits. But ultimately it is politically conservative, because the media giants are significant beneficiaries of the current social structure around the world, and any upheaval in property or social relations—particularly to the extent that it reduces the power of business—is not in their interest.— 

Robert W. McChesney, The New Global Media; It’s a Small World of Big Conglomerates, The Nation Magazine, November 29, 1999

Media Ownership

Media ownership

Media ownership has a huge impact on the availability of the products that are able to be made. Huge conglomerates such as Disney horizontally integrate, meaning that when they synergise across other sectors such as TV, publishing and games, they work with companies and institutions that they already own or have created. They earn the name ‘conglomerate’ by having these subsidiary companies within themselves. This means that all profit made across the sectors, stays within the conglomerate, being Disney. The domination of a conglomerate has a huge effect on smaller media institutions. Smaller media institutions have little media ownership. Little media ownership may cause losses in their overall profit. This is due to the fact that for them to synergise to other sectors, they must work with other, separate companies and institutions, that specialize in that particular area. Doing this causes the company to share out its profit to any companies that have helped.

The ease to which a conglomerate can offer new products is great. The parent company can decide what products they want, and can use their subsidiary companies to create it. An example of this would be Disney wanting a TV show to be broadcast on The Disney Channel. Whatever this new show is, Disney will have full influence on its outcome. Smaller companies will have greater difficulty doing this as the reality of converging with another company is not guaranteed. Even if successful, part of the control of the product goes to this external company, influencing the final outcome. Media conglomerates will have full control of their products and how it turns out. The subsidiary companies are under control of their parent company.

To further add to the freedom of control that conglomerates have over their products, they no longer have to worry about the thoughts and opinions of their audience. They no longer have loyalty to their audience because of the scale of their company. These conglomerates are at a stage where they no longer need to attract new audiences. Whatever they make will be a success, despite being a high quality product of a low quality product. For example, smaller institutions must ensure that their product meets the demands of their audience. If they do this, then the chances of their product being successful will be maximized. However, they cannot ignore what their audience wants like conglomerates can, because their reputation for high quality products will be a lot lower, meaning that if it looks bad, no one will watch/buy it.