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WHO OWNS WHICH NETWORKS, HOW BIG IS TOO BIG ?

gregg75

gregg75

I'd like a list of which channels/networks have the same owner. I'll start with what I can find,
add more if you know them.

NBC UNIVERSAL/COMCAST: NBC, USA Network, Syfy, Chiller, CNBS, MSNBC, Bravo, Qubo, Telemundo, Weather Channel, A&E & Lifetime (co-owned with Disney & Hearst---Biography, Crime & Investigation, History, History International, Lifetime Movie Networks, Military History Channel). ALSO OWNED: Universal Studios, Hulu (must be sold under Comcast purchase). Television and radio stations. Comcast also owns E!, Versus, Golf Channel, Style Network, cable TV (I think there are some regional sports networks involved also)

Talk about your NBC Red/Blue networks split.........this is 50 times more "powerful" than that was.

ABC/DISNEY: ABC, several Disney channels, ABC Family, SOAP Net, several ESPN networks
ALSO OWNED: Television and radio stations, Pixar, Disney movie studios, Disney Theatrics, theme parks and resorts

How big is too big? Seems like both are examples of very large conglomerates that the government has seen a public interest in busting up over the decades. Why are these able to survive while other (less encompassing) companies were ordered to divest?
 
viacom and cbs, they were together and split and back on together again or split again. (confusing)

tv land, nickelodeon, mtv, mtv 2, vh 1, showtime, i know they other cable networks they own. plus viacom or cbs has partnered with warner bros. for the cw network. radio stations tvr3 (spanish)

fox fox tv, fox news, fx, fxm fox movie ch.my space, mytv tv network.

warner bros with cbs or viacom the cw tv network, cnn, cnn headline news, tbs, tnt, tcm, cartoon network, tbs.
 
One big difference between the ownership of NBC in the 1920s and '30s and the ownership of NBC today: Patents. In fact, RCA was to that era what Microsoft was from 1995 until only recently - a ruthless quasi-monopoly.

RCA either owned outright or controlled most of the patents for just about every electronic circuit and component of the time. They had a de-facto monopoly on radio in the United States until those patents expired. IIRC, the only patent fight they lost was to Philo Farnsworth for electronic TV.

Rival manufacturers had to pay RCA license fees for components and circuits. Comcast can't do that, nor will they ever be a monopoly in anything other than home cable service in some parts of the country.
 
gregg75 said:
How big is too big? Seems like both are examples of very large conglomerates that the government has seen a public interest in busting up over the decades. Why are these able to survive while other (less encompassing) companies were ordered to divest?
Click to expand...

Being a big company isn't against the law. Using ones size in anti-competitive ways is against the law. That is what the Justice Department has sought to control in the Comcast merger. They made it clear just how far Comcast can go before it threatens competition.

The reason NBC was forced to divest the Blue network was because a competitor, the Mutual Broadcasting System, claimed the two networks engaged in anti-competitive tactics in locking up talent and affiliates.

Usually what it will take is evidence of a crime being committed. You can be sure a lot of people will be watching Comcast very carefully from here on.
 
Talk about your NBC Red/Blue networks split.........this is 50 times more "powerful" than that was.
Click to expand...

No, not really. The NBC Networks still reached more of the US population than Comcast's networks do now. NBC completely dominated radio broadcasting before World War II. To use Keith's computer-radio metaphor, NBC was Windows. CBS was OS X. Mutual was Linux.

PS: The RCA patent trust included patents of GE, Westinghouse, AT&T and United Fruit. RCA (NBC) also operated stations owned by GE and Westinghouse at the time. Red and Blue appeared on rate cards and internal documents. To the public, there was just "NBC, The National Broadcasting Company" (followed by three chimes). "Blue" was only used on the air when NBC was getting ready for the forced divestiture. In many markets, both NBC affiliates were duopolies, as NBC itself was. Programs were never identified with one color or the other because advertisers (who owned and produced most shows) often picked stations from the other line-up in certain markets to carry a given show.
 
I fail to see how you can compare a network to a cable company.

Anyway, it seems recently the government has turned it's back on these big mega-mergers OR do they just like to pick and chose the ones they want to go after (the ones that failed to offer campaign money in an attempt to sway legislation)?
 
gregg75 said:
Anyway, it seems recently the government has turned it's back on these big mega-mergers OR do they just like to pick and chose the ones they want to go after (the ones that failed to offer campaign money in an attempt to sway legislation)?
Click to expand...

As I said in my post, it takes evidence of a crime being committed. It helps when a competitor files charges against a big company. The government was very thorough in evaluating the Comcast-NBC Universal merger. If you read their findings, you'd see it wasn't just a rubber stamp. But the role of the government isn't to interfere with or prevent business. The civil servants at the Justice Department aren't swayed by campaign contributions. They are hard core lawyers who evaluate issues on their merits.
 
MattParker said:
Talk about your NBC Red/Blue networks split.........this is 50 times more "powerful" than that was.
Click to expand...

No, not really. The NBC Networks still reached more of the US population than Comcast's networks do now. NBC completely dominated radio broadcasting before World War II. To use Keith's computer-radio metaphor, NBC was Windows. CBS was OS X. Mutual was Linux.
Click to expand...

Or, at the corporate level, RCA/NBC was Micro$oft, CBS was Apple, and Mutual (like Linux) wasn't really a corporation at all. It was more of an association of stations (WOR, WGN, WXYZ being the biggies), similar to how Linux distributions are an "association" of different programs.

PS: The RCA patent trust included patents of GE, Westinghouse, AT&T and United Fruit. RCA (NBC) also operated stations owned by GE and Westinghouse at the time. Red and Blue appeared on rate cards and internal documents. To the public, there was just "NBC, The National Broadcasting Company" (followed by three chimes). "Blue" was only used on the air when NBC was getting ready for the forced divestiture. In many markets, both NBC affiliates were duopolies, as NBC itself was. Programs were never identified with one color or the other because advertisers (who owned and produced most shows) often picked stations from the other line-up in certain markets to carry a given show.
Click to expand...

I was trying to keep it simple, but you are 100% correct. RCA did own both NBC stations in New York and Chicago (although WENR was part-time, requiring NBC Blue to be split between it, WLS, and WCFL). Don't know about anywhere else.
 
KeithE4 said:
Or, at the corporate level, RCA/NBC was Micro$oft, CBS was Apple, and Mutual (like Linux) wasn't really a corporation at all. It was more of an association of stations (WOR, WGN, WXYZ being the biggies), similar to how Linux distributions are an "association" of different programs.
Click to expand...

WXYZ had left Mutual and joined NBC (Blue) by 1935. However, they still had a contract with Mutual to provide the Lone Ranger. WXYZ was in the ironic position of producing The Lone Ranger in Detroit but having it heard locally for the next few years on CKLW.

WGN, WOR and the Don Lee Network in the West each owned 25% of Mutual - and provided most of the programming. The remainder was divided (six per cent each) between CKLW, WHK, Cleveland, WKRC, Cincinnati and the Colonial/Yankee Networks in New England. One per cent went to the network general manager.
 
MattParker said:
WXYZ had left Mutual and joined NBC (Blue) by 1935. However, they still had a contract with Mutual to provide the Lone Ranger. WXYZ was in the ironic position of producing The Lone Ranger in Detroit but having it heard locally for the next few years on CKLW.
Click to expand...

I think it was about this time that Mutual started its claim against NBC. Perhaps over this very issue. WXYZ had been a founding member of MBS in 1934.
 
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