WHO OWNS WHAT IN THE US MAINSTREAM MEDIA?

Here’s an acronym I have come up with to make it easier to remember the BIG SIX media conglomerates, so you can tell your friends:

D-A-VI-GE-RM-BAG (Pronounced: “Davi-germ-bag”).

Here’s the list of who owns what (with approximate sales in 2005, according to Hoovers.com)

D Disney (owns ABC, Touchstone Pictures, Buena Vista, Hollywood Pictures, Caravan Pictures, Miramax Films, the History Channel, A&E, Discover magazine, etc. – with $34B in sales);

A AOL/Time Warner (owns CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. Film and TV Production, Castle Rock, TIME, Sports Illustrated, People, Entertainment Weekly, Money, Fortune, Netscape, etc.– with $53B in sales);

VI Viacom (owns CBS, Paramount Pictures, Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, Blockbusters, Showtime, MTV, The Movie Channel and Nickelodeon, BET, Nickelodeon, etc. – with $28B in sales);

GE General Electric (owns NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, Universal Pictures and 13 televison stations, etc. besides being heavily involved in the aerospace and arms industry, etc. – with $163B in sales);

RM Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (owns FOX TV, DirecTV, TV Guide, New York Post, The Weekly Standard, Harper Collins, Twentieth Century Fox and MySpace, etc. – with $31B in sales).

BAG Bertelsmann AG – One of the world’s top media firms, owns Europe’s RTL TV, Random House, Bantam Dell, Doubleday, Alfred A. Knopf, Vintage Books, etc. – with $21B in sales.