Media Ownership and the Film Industries

within the american film industry their are 6 major studios which dominate the industry, this is known as a oligopoly. the six major companies are

• Warner Bro's
• Paramount
• 20th Century Fox
• Walt Disney Pictures
• Columbia Pictures
• Universal Pictures

each of these six companies are all owned by a conglomerate, this is a huge media company that owns lots of other subsidiaries, for example, Warner Bro's is owned by Time Warner(conglomerate) this conglomerate also own programme Cartoon Network.

Because the film industry in american is dominated by the 6 studios, they have the ability to take bigger risks in filming, this could be having bigger budgets etc.

in britain it is a different situation, their aren't lots of massive companies like in america, and in the UK, most of the films are made by one of the big 6. intact american produced films account for 75% of the UK box office. the main independent companies in britain are

• Big Talk pictures - produced paul
• working title films - produced about a bay
• film4 - produced this is england
• BBC films - produced the boy in striped pyjamas 
• Ecosse films
• Uk film council - produced adulthood

the UK's film producers are a lot smaller than in america, this can cause a constrain in ideas, for example british films could have good ideas but not be as looked upon because the company wouldn't be as well known.