Participation or resistance to globalization.

Media Concentration in Europe: Engagement or Resistance to globalization.

Globalization is frequently portrayed as a positive motion which brings diverse civilizations and societies together, incorporating them into a planetary small town with apparent benefits for all participants in the procedure. It is widely depicted as an grim consequence of human advancement and societal development governed by the Torahs of nature but in world, globalization is anything but a natural sequence of procedures ensuing from the cross incursion of different civilizations and peoples of the universe.

Globalization is a defined result ensuing from witting human picks and the calculated actions of some powerful states, commercial concern pudding stones and international administrations who are the active stakeholders in the procedure. Besides the emergent developments in communications and information engineerings have provided mobility channels for the major corporations to plunder into foreign markets.

The media industry is possibly 1 that has experienced the extent to which globalization influences industry concern theoretical accounts. The methodological analysiss involved in the creative activity, administration, direction and distribution of media has evolved quickly and increased in outreach. The universe ‘s markets are going more and more incorporate and capitalist theoretical accounts are deriving laterality in the media markets. These tendencies exert force per unit area on the markets to do their state ‘s medias more commercially feasible, dependent on advertisement which markets the audience ‘s attending as consumers as assets.

Although a batch of states produce their ain telecasting, movie, music and print media content, they do so utilizing American, British or Nipponese theoretical accounts doing these media merchandises ‘globalised ‘ . Although these national media merchandises might reflect the local civilization, it is an mercantile establishment for planetary consumer merchandise sellers to include these specific civilizations into a planetary market. Roland Robertson ( 1995 ) describes such happenings as ‘glocal ‘ – local productions done with planetary signifiers and thoughts. Global companies besides have a important influence on the procedure with criterions administrations such as the International Telecommunications Union ( ITU ) apportioning satellite orbits, finding airing frequences and shaping criterions for telephones, nomadic phones, facsimiles, and internet connexions. There are besides a smattering of telecommunication companies Cable & A ; Wireless, who run much of the universe ‘s communications substructure of optical fiber overseas telegrams, orbiter, and high-velocity lines ( Jan, 2005 ) .

Besides, the increased incursion of media engineering around the universe is another major enabler to globalization. Virtually all states have a few dwellers who have entree to satellite telecasting and internet connectivity. The difference is that while the universe ‘s most advanced and technologically developed states use such media on a day-to-day footing and are yielding to the omnipresent nature of these technological developments and their infiltration of mundane life, other people in emerging markets and developing states are merely seeing these for the first clip and bit by bit acquiring to clasps with the utilizations, effects and deductions of such media engineerings. This gives an chance for planetary pudding stones to spread out and take advantage of the market spread to maximize net income and distribute their planetary coverage and economic clout.

In the analysis of globalisation and the media, it is really hard to divide both constructs and define the effects they have on each other. Most theoreticians argue that there is no globalisation without media while others agree that the operation of modern-day media is a cardinal driver in universe globalization. Harmonizing to Rantanen, the function of media and communicating in globalization is obvious yet hardly seeable doing thereby set uping the connexion is instead obscure ( 2005:4 ) . Most of these theories on globalization can be categorised under one of the undermentioned: political, economic and cultural nevertheless concentrating on one merely of these classs would non show a holistic position of the construct of globalization and how it operates. In 1990, Giddens provided a impersonal definition of globalization as ‘the intensification of global societal dealingss, which link distant vicinities in such a manner that local occurrences are shaped by events happening many stat mis off and frailty versa ‘ ( ibid. : 64 ) . However he went a spot farther by depicting three stages of the globalization argument which contains the classs mentioned earlier. The first stage is a argument on whether globalization exists or non. The following stage is an scrutiny of its effects on whatever it influences and eventually the 3rd stage of his analysis is the scrutiny of responses required to turn to the negative effects of globalization ( Rantanen, 2005 ) . Another theory put frontward by Thompson focal points on media and civilization, specifying globalization as the ‘growing interconnection of different parts of the universe, a procedure which gives rise to complex signifiers of interaction and mutuality ‘ ( Thompson, 1995:149 ) . An application of Thompson ‘s definition of globalization to analyze of the political economic system of the media can be used to depict the transmutation of new mass media constructions of control in our modern-day society.

Traditionally, national media systems consisted of domestically owned wireless, telecasting and newspaper industries which were internally regulated. However, from the mid 1980s onwards at that place have been several moving ridges of amalgamations and acquisitions in the media markets accompanied by the outgrowth of elephantine transnational media companies. This tendency is a comparatively new phenomenon that became mainstream in the 1980s where apart from the imports of books, movies, music and Television shows, the media systems existed in a defined national context.A The three chief factors argued to hold contributed to this tendency are: technological alteration, deregulating and liberalization policies and the handiness of capital ( Picard, 2002 and Ozanich and Wirth cited in Albarran and Mierzejewska, 2004 ) .

Get downing in the 1980s, ‘policy alterations and economic force per unit areas from the IMF, World Bank and U.S. authorities to deregulate and privatise media and communicating systems coincided with new orbiter and digital engineerings, ensuing in the rise of multinational media giants ‘ ( McChesney, 2003 ) . The major media participants see themselves as planetary entities irrespective of where they originated from or where their current caput offices are located. Management executives from some of the major houses have in the yesteryear made comments which demonstrated their worldwide clout. Companies like Bertelsmann, a traditionally German endeavor and even AOL-Time Warner an American outfit have ceased to see or turn to themselves based on their states of beginning. So

An ideal manner to understanding how closely the planetary commercial media system is to see the function and consequence of advertisement. Ad is an disbursal incurred by the largest houses within any market. The commercial media system is the necessary transmittal belt for concern to market their wares across the universe ; therefore globalization would discontinue to be without advertisement. 75 % of planetary outgo on advertisement is made to merely approximately 20 media companies ( The Economist 11 March 2000 ) . About five or six top ad bureaus dominate the 350 Billion dollar industry. The consolidation of the planetary advertisement industry is merely and pronounced as that in planetary media and the two are related ( ibid. :13 ) .

Two schemes which exist as market drivers to planetary media corporations are growing and consolidation in order to defy competition buy-out and variegation in other non-mainstream media industries like retail stores amusement Parkss and belongings development. Companies that do non hold the diversified outreach might non be able to stay economically feasible in the current concern landscape. The theoretical account allows diversified establishments to maximize net income channels so that a film for illustration would be able to engender a soundtrack, a book, and ware, and perchance spin-off Television shows, CD-ROMs, picture games and amusement park drives. In the 2003 article titled The Nine Firms That Dominate the World, Robert McChesney noted the undermentioned top-five media pudding stones have dominated the industry through this theoretical account. These companies that control world-wide media concerns yearly worth between 10 and 25 billion dollars are News Corporation, Viacom, Disney, Time Warner and Bertelsmann.A The four other companies that make up the top nine grade are TCI, a overseas telegram company with involvement in world-wide media ventures ; General Electric ( GE ) , the Parent company of NBC ; Sony, the Nipponese maker of electrical constituents who control Columbia and Tri-Star Pictures every bit good as Sony Music INC a world-leading record label ; and eventually Seagram who own Universal Studios and a music label.

The 2nd grade planetary media conglomerates consists of less than 100 media companies that control media related concern worth between 1 and 8 billion per twelvemonth. These houses tend to hold national or regional fastnesss or to specialise in planetary niche markets like concern or trade publication. A huge bulk of them come from North America, including the likes of Westinghouse ( CBS ) , the New York Times Co. , Hearst, Comcast and Gannett. Most of the remainder semen from Western Europe ( Thomson Reuters, Pearson, Prisa, Mediaset and Reed Elseiver ) , East Asia and Latin America where the remainder specialise in domestic productions however with fiscal outreach and abilities to carry on concern on a planetary graduated table when necessary. Like some of the companies in the top-tier, these establishments are besides consequences of amalgamations and acquisitions. In the UK for illustration, Fourth Estate which was an independent publication house was sold to HarperCollins in 2000 ( Kirkpatrick, 2000a ) , and the Bertelsmann the German Television giants have pioneered the domination of European tellurian telecasting market by three of the five houses which sit in the top grade ( Reed,2000 ) . In New Zealand, commercial wireless broadcast medium, publication and pay telecasting industries are controlled by Rupert Murdoch and Tony O’Reilly. Practically it can be seen that the major offerings of the universe ‘s ‘film production, Television show production, overseas telegram channel ownership, overseas telegram and orbiter system ownership, book publication, magazine publication and music production services are provided by these houses and the first nine in the top grade dominate many of these sectors ‘ ( McChesney, 2003 ) . Although at that place appear as rivals for planetary audience, these companies sign joint venture between themselves where they section ownership of specific countries of concern with their rivals in return for common concern favors. The deduction of this is a important diminution in competition. All the nine top grade media pudding stones are locked in assorted joint ventures with approximately three or four of the other companies in their class. These tendencies create considerable uncertainties about the being of true media pluralism and being of healthy market competition.

Motion Picture Association of America which represents audio-visual media industries like the Hollywood movies and Television studios can be said to hold gone planetary in the range of their commercial operations. They ain and command many concern concerns that either administer their movies or demo their produced contents in film and theatres all around America. From the analysis of the companies shown supra, it can be seen that the major participants in Hollywood have gone planetary and critics of globalization have been watching closely to see if the movies produced by Sony for illustration would hold been influenced by the Nipponese civilization instead than the Americans. Universal studios were sold to Vivendi of France, which besides had problem absorbing it, taking to a major internal struggle in 2002 within Vivendi over how far to globalise.

Record companies are likewise constructions except that they have a more diverse set of beginnings

and an even more international ownership. Major entering companies are based in Great Britain ( Thorn ) , the Netherlands ( Philips ) , Germany ( Bertelsmann-BMG ) , and Japan ( Sony ) . These companies have consolidated across boundary lines. Prince philips now own Polygram ( once of the United Kingdom ) , and Vivendi-Universal now owns RCA ( once of the United States ) , and Vivendi-Universal now owns MCA ( once of Matsushita-Japan, originally U.U. ) , and AOL Time Warner owns EMI ( once of Great Britain ) . Most of these companies besides have big foreign subdivisions that frequently produce and distribute records within other markets every bit good as distribute American and European music. As record companies have besides been acquired by transnational companies, these houses have become more planetary and less national in characters. Still, there are some of import differentiations in the ways that assorted media are organized around the universe

In drumhead, it is safe to reason that the media companies are increasing their size and range by manner of amalgamations and acquisitions every bit good as joint ventures cut downing the figure of media endeavors that ain and command the bulk of media services production and distribution. Consumers besides have a portion to play in the spread of planetary media activity due to a important addition in clip and money spent in media ingestions. Besides, due to technological inventions and convergence, media pudding stones are able to diversify their media merchandises and make an incorporate media industry ( Croteau and Hoynes, 2001 ) . Most of these endeavors have extended operations beyond media concerns to other non-media services such as retail.

Media Concentration in Europe

As obtained in the United States, the European media was mostly organised within national contexts and one of the primary grounds why this was so in Europe was the being of linguistic communication and cultural differences between states which limited the demand for cultural exports and this meant that advertisement had to be adapted to accommodate national markets doing it thereby raising overhead cost of advertisement. The rise of the planetary media oligopolies has non been restricted to the American market ; it has been exported and now adopted by the agents in European media markets. A 2004 study by the European Union on media concentration noted that the domination by multinational planetary endeavors of specific markets has made it hard to implement national media regulative Torahs and regulations which preserver competitory viability of the internal market. In Europe, the national media markets were dominated by public service broadcasters ( PSBs ) whose operations remained within their local states. Each state had a vivacious market with sufficient chances for growing and enlargement and tight authorities ordinance meant there was merely partial market liberalization with heavy revenue enhancements and levies on media companies. Besides high costs or and scarceness of media distribution channels or airing frequences besides served as a filter to media concentration ( European Council, 2004 ) .

All of these have changed significantly and European broadcast medium markets have become more liberalised cut downing the challenges associated with establishing private telecasting channels in certain states. The economic cooperation between the European Union has removed usage fees and strike revenue enhancements doing it easier for broadcasters to run in other states although topic to the ordinances of the host state province. There are renewed chances for an unrestricted flow of cultural and media merchandises leting corporations to spread out their productions due to an addition in demand. A impregnation of national media markets besides has reduced the cases of growing amalgamations and enlargement. Besides developments in the quality of localized media content such as Television shows, soaps and world Television programmes has made European states more receptive of media merchandises. Advertisers have besides increased their outgo on multinational runs with the purpose to make a larger proportion of European people and take advantage of the unfastened European community market. In the country of engineering, there has been a encouragement in airing frequence handiness due to the rise of digitization. Developments in orbiter, overseas telegram and tellurian digital engineering allow a larger figure of channels to be transmitted at the same time. Another betterment in media and communicating engineering means broadcast medium companies are able to utilize the cyberspace and broadband architecture ( European Council, 2004 ) .

One major company that has been the foremost participant in European media market is the Bertelsmann group which has involvements in Television and publication sectors and has spread its outreach into Eastern Europe.New International the parent company of British Sky Broadcasting ( BSkyB ) besides controls involvements in America, Asia, the United Kingdom and more late Italy. Another German pudding stone Springer has traffics in publication and they are retroflexing this theoretical account as they expand across Eastern Europe. Another pudding stone that has achieved a sensible portion in the Central and Easter European imperativeness market is Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung ( WAZ ) , another German publication endeavor. Cardinal EuropeanMediaEnterprises ( CME ) , a Bermudan company are the proprietors of eight Television Stationss in five Central and Eastern European states. All across Europe, ‘strategic allianceshave been made between elephantine media groups keen to work its freshly liberalised commercial broadcast medium markets. Therefore, Berlusconi’sFininvest supported the Kirch/Springergroup in Germany and acquired bets in Gallic and Spanish private commercial broadcast medium every bit good. Germany ‘s public telecoms operator, Deutsche Telekom, took a interest in the extremely successful LuxembourgAstrasatellite telecasting company. The Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Television ( CLT ) acquired bets in commercial broadcast medium operations in Germany, France and the Benelux states ‘ ( Humphreys, 1995 ) .

In order to decently analyze the nature of transnational media concentration in Europe, it is ideal to see each media industry on its ain and the economic construction, political and societal, cultural and lingual set up of the peculiar state being examined as they differ from one European state province to the other. Media ingestion in Europe remains high and is increasing in all sectors of new media. Harmonizing to the 2004 European council study titled: ‘Transnational media concentrations in Europe ‘ the day-to-day statistics of media contact among citizens show that 97 % of Europeans watched telecasting, 60 % listened to the wireless and 46 % read a newspaper every twenty-four hours. The creative activity and handiness of new media increases entire media usage, but telecasting remains the medium that takes up most of the clip. Europeans watch telecasting between 2.5 and 4 hours a twenty-four hours, many use the Internet to a similar extent. However, a big portion of the clip is spent on content produced in one ‘s ain linguistic communication and state.

There is a differentiation between ownership forms in Western and Eastern Europe. The predomination of foreign ownership in different media sector markets across Europeshows different forms in Western Europe ( i.e. the 15 EU Member provinces ) and in EasternEurope, including the 10 new Member provinces. Sanchez-Tabernero and Carvajal ( 2002 ) showthat different media bringing systems exhibit different forms in foreign or transnationalmedia ownership. In the European Union, new communicating engineering platforms showthe highest rate of incursion of foreign capital or international multimedia companies andtheir joint ventures.

In overseas telegram bringing, the three major groups are NTL Inc. , UPC/ UGC Europe, and CallahanAssociates / Cable Partners, all with US ownership.

Radio is still the mass medium with the least foreign or commercial ownership, i.e. the largestaudience market portions are obtained by public wireless Stationss.

Although the imperativeness sector in Western Europe still remains predominantly national, in Centraland Eastern Europe it is mostly dominated by foreign media proprietors. Companies fromWestern Europe ( e.g. WAZ, Axel Springer, etc. ) expanded their operations in the 1990 ‘s, chiefly by puting in bing media companies ( the WAZ theoretical account normally includes a 50 % portions and the “golden vote” giving them determination doing power in commercial affairs ) , andthen spread outing the figure and type of publications. In Croatia, WAZ invested in this manner atthe terminal of the 1990 ‘s in the Croatian media company, Europa Press Holding, publishing house of thedaily Jutarnji list ( around 30 % day-to-day newspaper audiences ) and Globus, the leader on themarket of political weeklies. In the hebdomadal magazine imperativeness, EPH holds some 50 per cent ofthe audience market. The first-ranked by circulation among the day-to-day documents, VeA?ernji list, was acquired by Austrian Styria, with the consequence that about 70 % of the day-to-day newspapermarket goes to the media merchandises owned by foreign companies. In Hungary, in 2001, 83 % of the day-to-day newspaper marked was owned by foreign investors. The Estonian dailynewspaper market is entirely dominated by foreign companies ( 54 % by the Norwegiancompany Schibsted ASA, 46 % the Swedish Bonnier Group ) 2.

In commercial wireless and telecasting broadcast medium in Central and Eastern Europe, it isAmerican, and non European ( in the publication sector it is mainly German, Austrian, andScandinavian companies ) capital that predominates. Companies that have spread furthest inthis portion of Europe are Cardinal European Media Enterprises ( CME ) , ScandinavianBroadcasting Corporation, and News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch, with a smaller figure of Stationss ( but public programs for spread outing ) . The largest West European commercialbroadcasting company – RTL ( 89 % owned by the planetary media company Bertelsmann, and 7 % by WAZ ) , has late expanded in Central Europe ( in partnership with Croatiancompanies, it was awarded the 2nd Croatian national commercial telecasting grant in2003 ) .

Commercial offerings which are portion of multinational media groups have neverthelesssignificant audiences in many European states. The RTL Group, owned by Bertelsmann, has profitable telecasting Stationss in 10 European states with audiences making 23-35 % in the four top states. The Swedish MTG runs telecasting Stationss in seven states withnational audience portions up to 23 % . CME is present in four states with big audiences ( from 20 to 48 % ) , SBS is active in four states with audience portions of between 6 and 13 % , and News Corp. International is present in four states, with the largest audiences inBulgaria and the UK. Programs from neighboring states besides have significantaudiences in spill-over countries.

In the newspaper sector, national publishing houses are dominate in most Western Europeancountries ( apart from Denmark, the UK and the French-speaking portion of Belgium ) . In EasternEurope, the state of affairs is the antonym because about all day-to-day imperativeness markets are dominated bycompanies with foreign ownership.

1.4 Forms of multinational ownership

2. Economic analysis of concentration

2.1 Causes of concentration

Concentration of ownership is a general economic tendency which is besides found in the mediasector. Media houses move into other states when their place market is saturated, to attaincritical mass, to pool resources and to portion hazards. In several instances houses have turned to othercountries because the competition governments refused to allow them travel in front with a nationalmerger for fright that it would make a dominant place or a monopoly.

2.2 Forms of multinational concentration

Multinational media concentration ( TMC ) is established when person has obtained asubstantial ownership place within the media sector in more than one state. TMC can bestructured into three chief classs, at least where traditional media is concerned:

i‚•iˆ Ownership of media companies in many states ( broadcasters, newspapers etc ) . Theownership can be obtained by acquisitions, constitution of new companies or by beinggranted broadcast medium licenses or by internal growing.

i‚•iˆ Overspill of airing from broadcasters runing in one state into neighbouringcountries. It is non technologically possible to halt broadcast medium signals at nationalborders. A certain overspill is hence ineluctable. In many instances such broadcastingsignals are retransmitted to do them accessible to a wider audience than those who arecovered by the natural overspill.

i‚•iˆ Pan-European broadcast medium ( chiefly telecasting ) .Broadcasting directed towards all or mostEuropean states. Such broadcast medium can hold many linguistic communication versions.

Dominant places can besides be obtained on the Internet. However, whether such positionsshould be evaluated in a regional, national, multinational within Europe or planetary contextneeds careful consideration which is outside the range of this study.

2.2.1 Economic engagement abroad

In the media this engagement normally consists in the acquisition of all or portion of a nationalmedia endeavor. It is deserving observing that even a minority portion can give control of the house, forexample when the other spouse is a fiscal concern or a Providence fund, which is frequently thecase in Europe. Working with a spouse in the state concerned helps to larn the nationalregulations and what the public expects.

Economic engagement abroad besides concerns houses supplying services to the media, such aspress distribution ( Hachette ) , publicizing and overseas telegram webs.

2.2.2 Cross-border or transfrontier services

These are services produced in one state and broadcast or disseminated in one or moreother states where the bring forthing company is non established. It is a signifier of exportactivity. In the printed imperativeness, these exports reflect the editors ‘ desires to spread out their gross revenues byselling their publications abroad. The state of affairs is less distinct where traditional broadcastingis concerned, as broadcasts can frequently be received abroad because wireless moving ridges do non halt atnational boundaries. Direct broadcast medium to other states, which used to be reasonably limited, has now grown with satellite broadcast medium and overseas telegram webs. The specificity of this sort ofbroadcasting prevarications in the fact that the range for intervention by national governments is oftenlimited, holding respect in peculiar to the rule of the free circulation of televisionservices across frontiers enshrined in the Council of Europe Convention on TransfrontierTelevision and the EU “Television Without Frontiers” Directive. One illustration is thecommercials broadcast in Switzerland by the German and Gallic broadcasters Sat1 and M6 ; their intent is to convey in higher grosss without holding to supply any particular content forthis market. The Internet besides offers a signifier of transfrontier service where national sites areconsulted by big Numberss of people in other states.

These transfrontier services are normally aiming those states which portion the samelanguage: the United Kingdom exporting to Ireland, France to Belgium and Switzerland, Germany to Austria and Switzerland. Exchanges are besides possible between Scandinaviancountries with similar linguistic communications. By and large talking publications and programmes in foreignlanguages are less widely disseminated.

2.2.3 Acquisition of broadcast medium rights

When broadcasters in different states get the rights to the same movies, series anddocumentaries, the consequence is a signifier of “upstream” concentration. Geting the rights to makeor broadcast certain types of programme, such as “Big Brother” , for illustration, falls into thiscategory, as do licenses to print free day-to-day newspapers which have managed to do theirmark on the market ( “Metro” and “240 Minutes” , for illustration ) .

2.3 Consequences of multinational concentration

2.3.1 The hazard of falsifying competition to the hurt of little national publishing houses and

BroadcastersMeasures taken by big houses can sabotage their challengers ‘ activities and even coerce them outof concern, in assorted ways, particularly much smaller houses. The danger is all the greaterwhen the house is vertically incorporate and has a multinational activity. It can deny entree toplatforms or offer unfavorable rates or slots to its rivals. The acquisition of exclusivebroadcasting rights for several states can ache broadcasters in the states concerned bydepriving them of attractive content that might otherwise hike their evaluations on their homemarket.

2.3.2 Weakening of public service broadcasters

Their position prevents public service broadcasters from spread outing their activities abroad, puting them at the clemency of major foreign broadcasters active in several states. Whereforeign broadcasters get sole broadcast medium or advertisement rights for several states, national governments are non ever able to support the involvements of their public servicebroadcasters, doing it more hard for them to carry through their public service mission. It shouldnot be forgotten that public broadcasters in little states have to confront competition frommajor foreign channels with budgets ten times larger than theirs.

2.3.3 The peculiar state of affairs in cardinal and eastern Europe

The displacement from a planned to a broad economic system has profoundly affected the media in thesecountries. American and European groups have fleetly taken over from the state-run media, establishing western-style publications and telecasting channels. These houses are now so wellestablished that the new business communities in these states who have been prepared for the freemarket economic system are happening it hard to carve out a topographic point for themselves on their ownmarkets. The state of affairs in these states is so unusual that it merits a separate survey.

2.3.4 An progressively commercial attack to programmes

Multinational concentration chiefly involves big groups viing ferociously for their shareof markets where concern potency still exists. In order to win the assurance of advertizers, their exclusive beginning of income, they have to hold good evaluations, so they show programmes thatappeal to the largest possible audience, sometimes gratifying to hapless gustatory sensation, which is possibly non what one expects of a broadcaster.

It should be noted, nevertheless, that in add-on to the major commercial channels, a largenumber of subject channels exist today which make a valuable part to sentiment formingand civilization in general. The chief drawback is that, for proficient grounds, these channels arenot yet available. With the development of digital broadcast medium, audiences thirsting forpolitics and civilization will hold a wider pick alongside the strictly commercial programmes.

2.4 Ideas on the effects of media concentration on competition

2.4.1 Measuring power on the market

The impression of “power on the market” must be distinguished from that of “dominant position”.One characteristic of multinational concentration is that a house can win power at the European levelthanks to its power to negociate broadcast medium and advertisement rights, but without becomingdominant in its market. Furthermore, statute law regulating competition does non condemnpower as such but merely its maltreatment. The governments are frequently powerless against dominantpositions that are the consequence of internal growing in dynamic concerns ( Microsoft is anexample ) , or when houses are left in a dominant place because their rivals go out ofbusiness. In a market economic system, we must non punish houses that have become powerfulbecause they are more dynamic than their rivals.

When mensurating media concentration at the European degree, we observe that monopolysituations arise more often in smaller states, at least sing national television.This is because on such little markets there is frequently non adequate room for two operators largeenough to be commercially feasible because of deficient advertisement resources.

2.4.2 Economic competition and journalistic competition

Economic competition is waged between houses which are economically and legallyindependent of one another. Journalistic competition can happen not merely between differentfirms but besides between independent column squads within the same group, provided that theyhave been granted editorial position. The competition governments are interested merely in economiccompetition, whereas journalistic competition is really of import in measuring pluralism.

Recommendations:

i‚•iˆ The Council of Europe should originate ongoing monitoring of multinational media

concentrations, paying attending to the development of the media landscape and the manner the

public uses the media. The decisions of this monitoring should be published in a annual

study and made easy accessible to the populace.

i‚•iˆ In position of the rapid development of multinational media concentrations, action at the

international degree is necessary. The Council of Europe should desperately analyze the

appropriate agencies, including a convention, to forestall the negative impact that this

phenomenon may hold on freedom of look, pluralism and diverseness.

i‚•iˆ Member States of the Council of Europe should back up public service broadcasters, as

specific suppliers of diverse content, besides as content manufacturers on new technological

platforms.

i‚•iˆ Member Sstates should promote the development and strengthening of the part

of community media in a pluralistic media landscape.

i‚•iˆ Member States should include the part to freedom of look and information

and pluralism of sentiments as an obligatory aim when allowing broadcast medium licenses.

i‚•iˆ Member States should implement a clear separation between political governments and the

media and guarantee that all determinations taken by public governments sing the media are

transparent.

i‚•iˆ Member States should beef up their action to procure media pluralism and the column

independency of the media through statute law or other agencies.

i‚•iˆ In add-on, media administrations should follow working self-regulatory mechanisms to

safeguard editorial independency.