Over the past two decades, there have been widespread concerns about a continuing and seemingly accelerating trend of the conglomeration of television and movie industry around the world. It is interesting that Bagdikian and his book The Media Monopoly was first published in 1980 and the sixth edition in year 2000.
There are both advantages and disadvantages of conglomeration towards the moive and television industry. Conglomeration provides economies of scale. For example, a larger television station bears a relatively lower operating cost. It is because many small stations and small departments share the same resources. In addition, large station has deep pockets and it can afford to those small units to overcome the non-profitable periods. Therefore, the conglomeration can ensure a steady profit of the company, and sometimes very profitable.
On the other hand, conglomeration brings negative effects to the movie and television industry. I think it forces those larger companies to focus on the bottom line, but not quality of programs. The quality of some programs is really reduced. Also, the number of different programs may be reduced and makes the programs too homogenous. It is because programs produced by the same television stations probably do not have a great variety. Indirectly, this brings bad effect to the audiences as they explore to fewer types of programs.
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