Cross Media PWNership

To display my vast knowledge on the subject of cross media ownership I shall first start off with a megacomglomerate of which I hope we have all had an experience with at some point. Disney

Yes, that's right, the well known children's company Disney, famed for their love of killing parental figures in movies (ala the lion king) and selling sex to teeny boppers( ala the Jonas brothers, parodied at the bottom of this post), as well as as a reported global intake of $35 BILLION A YEAR.

"Hu-huh, now what you want to do is burn them all Hu-Huh!"

The Walt Disney Picture company was founded by Mr. Walt D himself, whom before the company was created was already widely known in the entertainment business as a filmmaker and entrepreneur. after co-founding the business with his brother he set about making his legacy move from films to a whole host of other companies and creating an empire based on the entertainment business and much more.

"Cor blimey Mary Poppins, I am sterotyping the working class la dee dee laah doo doo"

The film production companies owned by Disney are a great source of income and brand recognition, From their self branded Walt Disney pictures which creates all the live action Disney features to the recent purchase of the Marvel production house which grants them access to all the iconic superheroes they could ever want to translate to film (see the recent releases of Marvel films in the buildup to The Avengers to understand what i mean) As well as the big hitter Touchstone pictures, which has came up with gems such as Who framed Roger Rabbit (a personal favourite from my youth) and TRON. This gives them a net in the film industry that has been cast wide and allows them have their hands on many productions at one time creating productions for all different kinds of target audiences around the globe.

Come on kids! Don't go outside! ITS MICKEY

Network Television is another good earner for Disney as they concentrate on their own self titled Channels such as kids channel the Disney Channel and its 500 identical cousins of Disney Channel +1, Disney Movies and a host of other variations that allows them to promote their own TV shows produced mostly in house on cheap budgets with actors usually owned in some way by Disney, the rise of stars such as Hannah Montana and Lizzy McGuire are testament to this.
Self titled channels aside Disney Also have the History channel and the Biography channel as well as owning Lifetime and all its subsidiaries. Network and Cable TV channels prove to be good acquisitions for companies looking for cross media success in that it allows them to market products subtly and bring in new viewers for their products that may not have been exposed to them via feature length movies.

Another part of their Entertainment arm is that of animation houses. They hold majority shares in possibly one of the biggest and best Pixar responsible for some of the more groundbreaking 3D animated movies of the last decade. As well as the self titled Walt Disney Animation studios which since it's conception has churned out some of the best animated features of all time (even if some are a bit anti-semetic or racist, youknow...FOR KIDS).  Having these companies have benefited the Disney mega corp by putting them at the forefront of children's minds for decades and is one of their strongest areas of income. as well as winning them a host of awards and recognition in the industry from these trusted animation brands. 



Music has been a sector that Disney has gotten their teeth stuck into and have found ways to self promote their TV shows and artists or cash in on the clamber for some of their more musical creations whether they be soundtracks or original theatre productions, having an established presence in the music world allows them to have more of a monopoly on their target audiences and add to the list of merchandise they can produce from something as simple as a kids TV show.

The crew of the High School musical Franchise...

From the self titled Walt Disney records which deals with most of the older music e.g. the Jungle book (I wannah be like you-oo-ooh) and the releases of the FAR TOO POPULAR high school musical....musicals.  Mammoth records which dissolved into Hollywood records which owns the musical "careers" of Selena Gomez and Hilary Duff. (those musical genius's). Buena Vista Records, and Walt Disney Music Publishing, which tends to only deal with their film soundtracks and more recently Marvel soundtracks and releases. This gives them a strong presence in the music scene and allows them to have an intake from the money available to the often stellar careers of their self made proteges. Ala Selena Gomez (who has her own Disney Kids Show) and Hilary Duff (star of the Disney Channels, The Lizzie McGuire Show)

WATCH US, LOVE DISNEY

Arguably one of their biggest companies people do not associate with the Walt Disney Mega corp is that of the American Channel ABC, this gives the company a news outlet, sport coverage, more kids shows and a whole host of other useful chat shows and high profile guests appearing on another facet of their company.This gives them a whole other audience to cater to (by having very non Disney programmes feature on ABC)  and by using the ABC channel and other channels under their control they can often self promote via news coverage, review shows and chat shows bringing more attention to whatever release they have coming out at the moment.

  For example:

Having Zac Effron (douche) in a new movie from Disney? Stick him on an ABC chat show such as Jimmy Kimmel and have the two plug it for about twenty minutes. Instant gratification as well as spreading your advertising to a different audience.
ABC even has its arm in the digital news revolution to have on demand quick access to all their breaking stories at the touch of an electronic button. Too good to be true! This allows them to upload little gems of BREAKING NEWS such as this:

Football, Icehockey? Dont worry...Mickey has you covered.

Sports as it is a major pass time in many countries across the world has not been neglected as they own the company ESPN, A worldwide provider on a host of channels of sports news and action action  make this another sector Disney has managed to gain a hold on. From owning half the rights to show the English Premier League to the latest extreme sports and dedicated 24 hour sports news channels online and on TV even allows them to compete with companies such as BskyB and the BBC.

Other examples of Disney's cross media ownership would be its Online interactive (which contains the Various websites and interactive experiences such as computer gaming and the likes)  and Merchandising Outlets(which handles the totally not sweatshops and the distribution of merchandise to all the Disney stores and Disney owned stores around the world)  but as I am trying to stay on course of more Film production and media I will leave that to perhaps another apprentice to talk about.


These are just some of the bigger examples of Cross media ownership that the Disney business has its hands on and without going too far into detail on each I feel I have at least shown and understanding of what a cross media company would own and a few examples as to why they would stretch into these markets.