American media is consolidated into three or fewer firms per sector
Evidence
There is no shortage of looming mountains to analyze today, all of which have consolidated and now dominate the U.S. (and often global) market: four tech companies (Alphabet/Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta/Facebook), five film/television companies (Disney, Netflix, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Sony, Warner), three theater chains (AMC, Cineworld, Cinemark), three recorded-music companies (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony), three streaming music services (Spotify, Apple, Amazon), three radio groups (iHeartMedia, Audacy, Cumulus), three talent agencies (Endeavor, Creative Artists Agency, United Talent Agency), three wireless carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile), two cable companies (Comcast and Charter), and one music conglomerate (Liberty Media) that controls the biggest satellite radio company (SiriusXM), the biggest digital radio service (Pandora), and the biggest live-music, venue, ticket-sales, and artist-management firm (Live Nation/Ticketmaster). — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 31
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to any media-consolidation source the reader has encountered, e.g. Ben Bagdikian’s ‘Media Monopoly’ claims about ownership concentration. — connects to: The 1996 Telecommunications Act concentrated US media in six corporations — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 105
- SHARE: The tight two-to-five-firm domination across every media layer is a useful precise figure for someone tracking consolidation.