Media ownership is the monopoly of a few powerful institutions controlling basically everything we watch and hear. Ownership of the production, distribution, and exhibition companies affects the types of films being made. Six dominant studios own a majority of the media in the world from TV, film, music, and news. The six are News Corporation which owns 20th Century Fox and The Sun, Time Warner which owns Warner Brothers and IPC Magazine, Disney which owns Walt Disney and Pixar, Bertelsmann which owns Channel 5, Viacom which owns Paramount Pictures and MTV, Sony which owns Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures, and Vivendi which owns Universal.
Global media giants have firmer groundwork and larger budgets to invest in films and buy other smaller production companies. They dictate how a movie is produced, and they eliminate competition from the market, which confines diversity and choice for the audience. For example, Working Title, a British production company collaborated with Universal Studios to produce the box office hit Four Weddings and a Funeral. The film's success extended their contract; however, it sent Universal Studios into financial loss because the company lacked creativity. Production is the creation of the film where the decisions and the processes are being made. The first stage of production is getting financial backing. Independent companies such as Warp Films and smaller British companies have to rely on the UK National Lottery and other government organizations for funding. Major studios have bigger film budgets than smaller companies which allows them to advertise and market as much as possible. For example, Avatar cost as much in marketing as it did in production. Production companies are either owned or under contract with a media conglomerate. They can either be directly responsible for fundraising the production or get help through a parent company. For example, 20th Century Fox is a subsidiary of Fox Entertainment which is owned by News Corporation. Fox Searchlight, a major distributor, is also owned by them. These companies are self-financing because they're owned by larger corporations. Independent films are different from studio films because they don't have the funding to produce, distribute, and market as easily as studio films. British films are often independent and lack the resources to produce their films made by a small studio, so they seek out distribution companies. The biggest ones are controlled by the U.S. However, a majority of the money goes to the distributor with no guarantee that they'll reinvest in the film. The British film industry's budget is comparatively less than Hollywood's. Since they need to rely on American partners for production and distribution, they have less room for creative freedom. For example, The Aardman and Dreamworks partnership was rumored to have ended because Aardman refused to shift to computer-generated imagery from animations for its parent company. As there are only a handful of companies that control the media, that means they control what we view and hear, influencing our thoughts and behaviors. For example, Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation, has granted election victors more screen time on Fox News and other news channels he owns, which brings up concerns about his continuous conspicuous bias. This type of tampering with media is common and influences people greatly.
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