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Media concentrations in Europe

Diversity of opinion, freedom of information and pluralism: media count as being the fourth state authority. Yet large media concerns are today transnationally active, and are increasingly forcing national media businesses from the market. Bernd Malzanini explains which media concerns in Europe have the largest influence on the formation of our opinions.

ProSiebenSat.1 Media is taking over the Scandinavian SBS Broadcasting, ProSiebenSat.1 is blowing the horns for attack on Austria, RTL and ProSieben are bidding for the Turkish broadcasting station, Canal Plus has expressed interest in Premiere: These are only some of the headlines from over the last months which represent a phenomenon not only symptomatic of the media branch.

In the 15th century Johannes Gutenberg invented printing with the help of movable type.
Photo: Photocase

National federations of commercial or industrial enterprises, transborder cooperations right up to global mergers are leading to larger and larger economical conglomerates.

Yet what exactly differentiates the concerns named at the start of this article from other transnationally active companies? They do not sell energy, they do not produce cars; they distribute neither textiles nor foodstuffs. The concerns about which we should now speak all have a special characteristic: they print newspapers, they produce films, they operate radio and television broadcasting stations, and thereby they project their influence on public opinion.

For example, Bertelsmann AG with its turnover of 19.3 billion euros in the year 2006 is one of the largest media concerns worldwide. More than two thirds of its profits are made outside Germany. Bertelsmann calls itself "the most international media concern in the world" and is represented in 63 countries.

Its fields of business include Random House (book publishing companies), Gruner + Jahr (newspapers; magazines), BMG (soundcarriers), Arvato (print, services, information technology, storage media) and the Direct Group (book and music clubs, online shops). According to its own presentation, Random House is the worldwide largest book publishing group, Gruner + Jahr are Europe's leading magazine publishing company and Sony BMG is the second largest music business worldwide: the book clubs and music clubs in the Direct Group are number one in all sub-segments and internationally.

The "cash cow” and therefore the branch of the concern which brings in the highest profits is the RTL Group, the largest broadcasting service provider across Europe, with 39 TV and 32 radio stations in 10 countries as well as approximately 30 production companies in 40 countries. It earns the largest proportion of profits for Bertelsmann AG. Germany's television sector includes RTL, RTL 2, Super RTL, VOX, n-tv, RTL Shop and Traumpartner TV. The group operates a digital of paying offers, such as Video-on-Demand (RTL Now), Handy-TV, IPTV and Online Communities.

RTL Group: television activities in Europe

The ProSiebenSat.1 Group also has a strong market position in Europe after its merger with Scandinavian Broadcasting System. The activities of the group include 24 Free-TV programmes in 12 countries, 24 Pay-TV programmes in 5 countries, 22 radio networks and 8 independent radio stations in 7 European countries. The business is active in the online and mobile areas and publishes a magazine in the Netherlands. The television programme has more than 200 million viewers across Europe.

ProSieben Sat.1 Group: television activities in Europe

The Axel Springer AG is Europe's largest newspaper concern. Alone in Germany, this concern has more than 35 million readers per day, and publishes more than 150 newspapers (regional and national) and magazines in 27 countries. In France, Springer publishes 5 magazines, in Spain 10, in Hungary 20 magazines and 10 regional newspapers, in Poland 15 magazines and one newspaper, in Romania 10 magazines, in Switzerland one newspaper and 7 magazines, in the Czech Republic 6 magazines, and in Russia one magazine and 2 newspapers. Added to this, they participate in the fields of radio and television, printing plants and postal services.

Other concerns active across Europe are e.g. the newspaper group WAZ and the French group Lagardère Media. But the American concerns, too; Walt Disney, Viacom, NBC and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation are also active in Europe.

This representation shows that the majority of the largest European media concerns are also developing activities outside of their original home country markets. There are a multitude of reasons for this. For one thing, the national markets are becoming increasingly saturated, and legal stipulations no longer allow growth or mergers at a national level. For this reason, for example, the Axel Springer Verlag (Publishing Company) was refused both by the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Antitrust Office) as well as by the Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (KEK) (Commission for the inspection of concentrations in the field of media) when it attempted to take over the ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG in 2006. For another, the businesses follow business management laws by bundling resources and creating and using synergies by setting up related fields of business. Not least, however, the reasons also lie in the liberalisation of the broadcasting service markets which can be observed across Europe, as well as new digital technologies and transmission possibilities.

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