title: Margate

text: Religion was recorded as 71.6% Christian, 17.1% no religion, 0.7% Muslim, 0.3% Buddhist, 0.3% Jewish, 0.2% Hindu, 0.1% Sikh; 0.3% had an alternative religion and 9.8% did not state their religion.


title: Margate

text: For every 100 females, there were 92 males. The age distribution was 6% aged 0–4 years, 16% aged 5–15 years, 5% aged 16–19 years, 31% aged 20–44 years, 23% aged 45–64 years and 19% aged 65 years and over.


title: Margate

text: 11% of Margate residents had some kind of higher or professional qualification, compared to the national average of 20%.


title: Margate

text: At the 2001 UK census, the economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 33.8% in full-time employment, 11.8% in part-time employment, 8.0% self-employed, 5.5% unemployed, 2.2% students with jobs, 3.9% students without jobs, 15.5% retired, 8.3% looking after home or family, 7.9% permanently sick or disabled and 3.6% economically inactive for other reasons. The rate of unemployment in the town was considerably higher than the national rate of 3.4%.


title: Margate

text: The industry of employment of residents was 17% retail, 16% health & social work, 13% manufacturing, 9% construction, 8% real estate, 8% education, 7% transport & communications, 5% public administration, 6% hotels & restaurants, 2% finance, 1% agriculture and 6% other community, social or personal services. Compared to national figures, the town had a relatively high number of workers in the construction, hotels & restaurants and health & social care industries and a relatively low number in real estate and finance.


title: Margate

text: Margate railway station, constructed in 1926 to designs by Edwin Maxwell Fry, serves the town. Train services are provided by Southeastern Trains.


title: Margate

text: For at least 250 years, Margate has been a leading seaside resort in the UK, drawing Londoners to its beaches, Margate Sands. The bathing machines in use at Margate were described in 1805 as


title: Margate

text: four-wheeled carriages, covered with canvas, and having at one end of them an umbrella of the same materials which is let down to the surface of the water, so that the bather descending from the machine by a few steps is concealed from the public view, whereby the most refined female is enabled to enjoy the advantages of the sea with the strictest delicacy.


title: Margate

text: The Dreamland Amusement Park is situated in the centre of Margate, operating since 1920, it was closed in 2006, and reopened in 2015 following a lengthy campaign by the "Save Dreamland Campaign" group. Its Scenic Railway roller coaster is the second oldest of its type in the world, and is now Grade II* Listed. It is one of only two early-20th century scenic railways still remaining in the UK; the only other surviving UK scenic railway is in Great Yarmouth and was built in 1932. The Margate roller coaster is an ACE Coaster Classic.


title: Margate

text: Cliftonville, next to Margate, had a classic British Arnold Palmer seaside mini golf course. It closed and was illegally converted to a skate park, which was later shut down by the council amid Safety Concerns.


title: Margate

text: There are two notable theatres, the "Theatre Royal" in Addington Street – the second oldest theatre in the country – and the "Tom Thumb Theatre", the second smallest in the country, in addition to the Winter Gardens. The Theatre Royal was built in 1787, burned down in 1829 and was remodelled in 1879 giving Margate more national publicity. The exterior is largely from the 19th century. From 1885 to 1899 actor-manager Sarah Thorne ran a school for acting at the Theatre Royal which is widely regarded as Britain's first formal drama school. Actors who received their initial theatrical training there include Harley Granville-Barker, Evelyn Millard, Louis Calvert, George Thorne, Janet Achurch, Adelaide Neilson and Irene and Violet Vanbrugh, among others.


title: Margate

text: In September, an annual car show commences known as "Oh So Retro" featuring classic and retro vehicles, trade stalls and family-friendly entertainment.


title: Margate

text: Margate Museum in Market Place explores the town's seaside heritage in a range of exhibits and displays, and is now opened at weekends by a team of volunteers.


title: Margate

text: First discovered in 1798, the Margate Caves (also known as the Vortigern Caves) are situated at the bottom of Northdown Road. They reopened in 2019.


title: Margate

text: The Shell Grotto, which has walls and roof covered in elaborate decorations of over four million shells covering in complex patterns, was rediscovered in 1835, but is of unknown age and origin. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.


title: Margate

text: The Walpole Bay Tidal Pool is a Grade 2 listed tidal sea bathing pool built in 1937. The pool covers over four acres and its dimensions are 450 ft long, 300 ft wide at the seaward end and 550 ft long at the landward end. The water in the pool is refreshed by the incoming tide twice a day and fresh water springs rise from the beach within the walls.


title: Margate

text: The former chairman of the Margate Civic Society, John Crofts, had a plan to develop a centre that would explore and show the link that the painter J. M. W. Turner shared with Margate. Turner described the Thanet skies as the "loveliest in all Europe." In 1994 Crofts became increasingly determined to create such a gallery and in 1998 the Leader of Kent County Council met a number of people from the art world to discuss the idea. They hoped that the centre would regenerate the once-thriving town of Margate and offer an alternative to Margate's traditional tourist trade. In the late 1990s, the County Council offered to fund the building of the Turner Gallery. Additional funding was contributed by the Arts Council England and South East England Development Agency. In 2001 the Turner Contemporary was officially established. The view from the gallery is similar to that seen by Turner from his lodging house.


title: Margate

text: To reduce the cost, Thanet District Council chose a new site inland from the harbour wall. The scheme was supported by the artist Tracey Emin, who was brought up in Margate. The building itself was designed by David Chipperfield Architects after the abandonment of the design by Snøhetta + Spence architects. Building work started in 2008 but the project's initiator, John Crofts, died in 2009. The Turner Contemporary Gallery officially opened on 16 April 2011.


title: Margate

text: Across the road from the gallery in Margate Old Town there is a community of independent shops. Accessed from the seafront via Market Street, Duke Street and King Street this area is clustered around the old Margate Town Hall in the centre of the Market Place. There is also a small museum in the town hall complex which provides information about the history of Margate. In 2012 Margate was chosen as one of the towns to benefit from the Portas Pilot Scheme aimed at regenerating some of Britain's high streets.


title: Margate

text: There is a 16th-century, two-storey timber-framed Tudor house built on a flint plinth in King Street.


title: Margate

text: Margate's Jubilee Clock Tower was built to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887, although not completed until 1889. It had a Time Ball mechanism, mounted on a mast atop the tower, which was raised a few minutes before 1pm each day and dropped at precisely 1pm, thereby allowing residents, visitors and ships to know the exact time. This was, of course, in the days before wireless transmission of time signals. The tower was Grade II listed in 1973. The Time Ball fell out of use many years ago, but following a suggestion by Arnold Schwartzman OBE RDI, a former Margate resident, Margate Civic Society raised funds to have the Time Ball repaired and brought back into use. This was successful, and a civic ceremony celebrated the restoration on 24 May 2014, Queen Victoria's birthday and the 125th anniversary of the Clock Tower's official opening. The Time Ball now drops at 1pm each day and is one of only a handful of working time balls in the world.


title: Margate

text: Draper's Mill is a smock mill built in 1845 by John Holman. It was working by wind until 1916 and by engine until the late 1930s. It was saved from demolition and is now restored and open to the public.


title: Margate

text: Margate features at the start and as a recurrent theme in Margate writer Iain Aitch's travelogue, "A Fete Worse Than Death". The author was born in the town.


title: Margate

text: T. S. Eliot, who in 1921 recuperated after a mental breakdown in the suburb of Cliftonville, commented in his poem "The Waste Land Part III - The Fire Sermon":


title: Margate

text: Margate features as a destination in Graham Swift's novel "Last Orders" and its film adaptation. The character Jack Dodds had asked to have his remains scattered at Margate, and the book tells the tale of the drive to Margate and the memories evoked on the way.


title: Margate

text: The Victorian author William Thackeray used out-of-season Margate as the setting for his early unfinished novel "A Shabby Genteel Story".


title: Margate

text: "Margate Fhtagn" is a song by UK steampunk band The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. The story related in the song combines the Victorian tradition of the seaside holiday with the works of H. P. Lovecraft, specifically the Cthulhu Mythos, to tell the tale of a Victorian family going on a seaside holiday to Margate, which gets interrupted by Cthulhu rising from the sea.


title: Margate

text: "Die Muschel von Margate" (Seashells from Margate) is a song written by Kurt Weill and Felix Gasbarra from 1928. It featured in "Konjunktur" (Oil Boom), a play by Leo Lania in which three oil companies fight over the rights to oil production in a primitive Balkan country, and in the process exploit the people and destroy the environment.


title: Margate

text: It is thought that Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote "The Lark Ascending" whilst walking along the cliffs in Margate.


title: Margate

text: A photochrom print of Margate Harbour was used by the icelandic-american band Low Roar as an album cover for "ross.", the band's 4th album released in 2019.


title: Margate

text: In 1971, the BBC TV series "" episode "Sunday, Sweet Sunday", written by Alan Plater, was filmed in Margate. The episode has many shots of the town and seafront, including Dreamland.


title: Margate

text: In 1989, Margate railway station and Dreamland featured prominently in the "Only Fools & Horses" episode "The Jolly Boys' Outing"


title: Margate

text: The 2012 BBC television drama series "True Love" was set and filmed in Margate. The show had its first public screening at the Turner Contemporary.


title: Margate

text: The 2014 ITV sitcom "Edge of Heaven" was set at a 1980s-themed bed and breakfast on the Margate seaside.


title: Margate

text: Also in 2014, J. M. W. Turner's long-term relationship with Mrs. Sophia Booth of Margate was featured in the film "Mr. Turner."


title: Margate

text: In series 4 of the British television crime drama "Peaky Blinders" (2017), the character Alfie Solomons (played by Tom Hardy) chooses to reside at Margate, where he's shot on the beach by Tommy Shelby.


title: Margate

text: In 2021, The Walpole Bay Hotel & Museum is featured in episode 3 of the ITV comedy drama "The Larkins".


title: Margate

text: In 2022, Margate was featured as a location in the BBC Drama series "Killing Eve". The seafront, and Dreamland also serve as filming locations for the film "Empire of Light" which was filmed in 2022.


title: Margate

text: In recent years, a popular beach race has been held at Barmouth, Wales, however this event differs as it is run along the lines of a motocross event, on a shorter, motocross style circuit. Beach Cross Racing is also taking place twice a year, usually in March and October, at Margate in Kent, and known as Margate Beach Cross. The event which is organized by QRAUK, in conjunction with Island Events and Thanet District Council has proven to be popular with not only British riders but with a huge number of riders from the Continent. The event has both Quads and Solos racing around a specially prepared course on Margate's main sands and it attracts many thousands of visitors.


title: Margate

text: Margate has two paid-for newspapers, the "Isle of Thanet Gazette" and "Thanet Times" (which ceased publication in 2012), which are owned by Northcliffe Media. Free newspapers for the town include online-only "Isle of Thanet News"; the "Thanet Extra", part of the KM Group; and "yourthanet", part of KOS Media. Local radio stations are KMFM Thanet, owned by the KM Group, community radio station Academy FM (Thanet); and the county-wide stations Heart Kent, Gold and BBC Radio Kent. Thanet Community Radio also offers an online community podcasting service for Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate and the wider areas of Thanet.


title: Margate

text: Oulton, W.C. "Picture of Margate, and Its Vicinity" [1820] Paternoster Row, London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. (2005 reprint) Ramsgate, Kent: Michaels Bookshop, . Title page of original edition: Google Books


title: Labcorp

text: Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, more commonly known as Labcorp, is an American healthcare company headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina. It operates one of the largest clinical laboratory networks in the world, with a United States network of 36 primary laboratories. Before a merger with National Health Laboratory in 1995, the company operated under the name Roche BioMedical. Labcorp performs its largest volume of specialty testing at its Center for Esoteric Testing in Burlington, North Carolina, where the company is headquartered. As of 2018, Labcorp processes 2.5 million lab tests weekly.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp was an early pioneer of genomic testing using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, at its Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where it also performs other molecular diagnostics. It also does oncology testing, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) genotyping and phenotyping.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp also operates the National Genetics Institute, Inc. (NGI), in Los Angeles, California, which develops PCR testing methods.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp's ViroMed facility, originally in Minnetonka, Minnesota, until closing this site in 2013, is now housed in Burlington and performs real-time PCR microbial testing using laboratory-developed assays.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp also provides testing in Puerto Rico and, outside the United States, in three Canadian provinces.


title: Labcorp

text: In February 2022, Labcorp announced that it has entered into agreements with Ascension, one of the nation’s leading Catholic and non-profit health systems, to manage Ascension’s hospital-based laboratories in 10 states and purchase select assets of the health system’s outreach laboratory business.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp utilizes a fleet of eight Pilatus PC-12 and a single Pilatus PC-24 aircraft on nightly runs from Burlington for use on the East Coast. Prior to the acquisition of PC-12 aircraft Labcorp utilized seven PA-31-350's.


title: Labcorp

text: National Health Laboratories Incorporated began in 1978. The company was a national blood and pathology laboratory owned by the Revlon Health Care Group, and managed by Michael E. Lillig for seven years. Lillig had earlier been with Becton, Dickinson and Company. At National Health Laboratories, Inc. he grew annual sales of the company each year by 43%, with revenue reaching $12 million by the end of his tenure. Lillig then left to found several health-care companies, including Syscor, Inc., Intelysis, Inc., Asterion, LLC and MetaCyte's 3DR in Louisville, Kentucky.


title: Labcorp

text: In 1988, National Health Laboratories became publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange. Revlon retained 24% ownership of the common shares, for the next six years. Revlon had been a publicly traded company since the 1950s, as it was during most of its ownership of National Health Laboratories. But in 1985, Revlon had been taken over by Ronald Perelman.


title: Labcorp

text: Through early 1995, the National Health Laboratories principal executive offices were located at 4225 Executive Square, Suite 805, in La Jolla, California.


title: Labcorp

text: In 1989, the company generated revenue of about US$400 million, with about US$70 million in earnings.


title: Labcorp

text: In 1990, the company's revenues reached US$500 million, with over US$70 million in earnings. That year, the company began paying a cash dividend to shareholders.


title: Labcorp

text: In 1991, National Health Laboratories moved from the NASDAQ OTC exchange to the New York Stock Exchange, where it began to trade under the new ticker symbol NH. Up until that time the company had performed very well, including through the 1990-1991 recession. Its earnings peaked that year at almost US$90 million, and its stock price had risen from its low within the prior few years by several-fold.


title: Labcorp

text: However, beginning in 1991 the company became embroiled in Operation "Labscam," a nationwide crackdown on fraud in the health-care system, initiated by the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego, California. The charges were that the company and others routinely submitted false claims to the government health-care agencies Medicare and Medicaid for unnecessary tests which physicians had never ordered. In 1992, National Health Laboratories became the first of the companies to be prosecuted in the government operation.


title: Labcorp

text: In 1992, the company reported revenues of over US$720 million, however with earnings of only US$40 million. The small gain that year reflected a fourth quarter charge of US$80 million, which the company paid in a settlement agreement with state and federal governments related to the LABSCAM investigation. The total payments made by National Health Laboratories in the settlement came to US$111 million that year, and ultimately reached US$173 million.


title: Labcorp

text: In 1993, revenues were up to US$761 million, with new peak earnings of nearly US$113 million. By that time the company had 22 major laboratories. The stock price reached a new all-time high in 1993, which became the peak for the next couple of years, and the company was added to the S&P MidCap 400 list.


title: Labcorp

text: On March 8, 1994, National Health Laboratories Inc. reorganized as a holding company, National Health Laboratories Holdings Inc.


title: Labcorp

text: By 1994, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. owned the Revlon Holdings Group's former 24 percent of National Health Laboratories Holdings. That company was a distributor of licorice extract and chocolate, which had previously been taken over, along with Revlon, by Ronald Perelman in the 1980s.


title: Labcorp

text: On May 4, 1994, National Health Laboratories announced that it would acquire Allied Clinical Laboratories, Inc., of Nashville, Tennessee, reducing their takeover offer to $204 million after federal officials issued new subpoenas in an investigation of Medicare billing practices at Allied Clinical Laboratories Inc. In 1993, Allied generated revenues of US$163 million. The former president and CEO of Allied Clinical, Haywood D. Cochrane, Jr., then became Vice Chairman of National Health Laboratories. In order to complete the cash transaction, the company discontinued paying its dividend at that time.


title: Labcorp

text: By the end of 1994, the company had run into financial difficulty again, as it struggled through the economic soft landing that year. Its earnings dropped by over two-thirds, to only US$30 million. The stock never traded that year at more than half of its 1993 peak, and at its 1994 low, it was down by nearly two-thirds from the all-time high.


title: Labcorp

text: On April 28, 1995, National Health Laboratories Holdings Inc. merged with Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc., and changed its name to Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings. It began trading under its new ticker symbol LH. Shareholders of National Health Laboratories received 0.72 shares of the new company, plus $5.60 in cash, for a 50.1 percent interest in the new company. At the time, James R. Maher was president and Chief Executive Officer of National Health Laboratories. Following the merger, Maher relinquished those positions, and instead became Chairman of the new company, succeeding the financier Ronald O. Perelman in that position. Perelman received about US$100 million from the deal, which made the new company the largest blood-testing company in the United States.


title: Labcorp

text: The merged company created revenues of US$1.7billion. National Health Laboratories already held long-term debt of US$351million. Together with the Roche debt, the combined companies owed US$590million prior to the merger. Another US$288 million was added to help finance the payout to shareholders. By year-end 1995, the new company's total debt reached US$959million.


title: Labcorp

text: Roche Biomedical Laboratories had been created by and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., the American arm of the Swiss medical conglomerate, Roche Holding, Limited. Before 1982, the core of Roche Biomedical Laboratories had been Biomedical Reference Laboratories, which dated from the late 1960s, and was located in Burlington, North Carolina. That core company had become publicly traded in 1979. Hoffman-La Roche acquired it for US$163.5million in 1982 and then merged it with all of its laboratories, and incorporated the merged company that year as Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. in Burlington. By the early 1990s, Roche Biomedical had become one of the largest clinical laboratory networks in the United States, with US$600million in sales.


title: Labcorp

text: By 1993 Roche Biomedical Laboratories had revenues of US$712million, with 17 major laboratories. Dr. James Powell was President of Roche Biomedical, and after the merger with National Health Laboratories he became president and CEO of the new company, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, which then relocated from La Jolla, California, to the Roche Biomedical headquarters in Burlington, North Carolina. Hoffmann-La Roche also contributed US$186.7 million in cash to the deal, and retained 49.9 interest in the new merged company.


title: Labcorp

text: By year-end 1995, the new Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings suffered a marginal loss of a few million dollars. The stock price dropped by almost half again through the year, to within 10% of its all-time low since going public six years earlier. By early the next year, it broke marginally below that level, and set a new all-time low.


title: Labcorp

text: In July 1998, Labcorp acquired the Michigan-based laboratory division of "Universal Standard Healthcare" (UHCI). Labcorp also acquired an equity position in Universal Standard Healthcare and has become UHCI's clinical laboratory long-term testing provider but terminated this agreement one year later.


title: Labcorp

text: In June 2000, Labcorp completed the acquisition of San Diego–based "Pathology Medical Laboratories" for an undisclosed amount.


title: Labcorp

text: In May 2001, Labcorp completed its acquisition of "Path Lab Holdings Inc.", the largest regional laboratory in New England, and just a few weeks later the acquisition of Minneapolis-based "ViroMed Inc.", specialized on clinical diagnostic testing in virology, molecular biology, serology, microbiology, mycology and mycobacteriology, as well as in tissue/eye bank testing, for an undisclosed amount.


title: Labcorp

text: In December 2001, Labcorp became the exclusive marketer for genomics and proteomics predictive cancer test products made by Myriad Genetics, Inc.


title: Labcorp

text: In May 2002, Labcorp announced the acquisition of all outstanding Shares of Canadian medical laboratory services company Dynacare Inc. for $480million in cash and own shares.


title: Labcorp

text: In January 2003, Labcorp acquired all of the outstanding shares of "Dianon", a provider of anatomical pathology and oncology testing services, for $598 million in cash.


title: Labcorp

text: In 2005, Labcorp's revenues totaled $3.3 billion; in 2006, revenues were $3.6billion; and in 2007, revenues reached $4.1billion.


title: Labcorp

text: In March 2005, Labcorp announced the acquisition of all outstanding Shares of "Esoterix, Inc.", a leading provider of specialty reference testing, for approximately $150 million in cash from private equity firm "Behrman Capital".


title: Labcorp

text: In December 2007, Labcorp acquired "Tandem Labs", a Contract research organization specializing in advanced mass spectrometry, immunoanalytical support, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics, headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT for an undisclosed amount.


title: Labcorp

text: In June 2009, Labcorp acquired Monogram Biosciences, a diagnostic lab specializing in HIV resistance testing, headquartered in South San Francisco, CA, in a cash tender of $4.55 per share for approximately $155million including debt.


title: Labcorp

text: In May 2010, Labcorp acquired the assets of its Santa Ana, California-based rival "Westcliff Medical Laboratory" which had just filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy action in federal court. The FTC challenged this acquisition but lost in court.


title: Labcorp

text: In September 2010, Labcorp announced the acquisition of "Genzyme Genetics", formerly a division of Genzyme, with 9 testing laboratories and approximately 1900 employees, for $925 million in cash.


title: Labcorp

text: In June 2011, Labcorp acquired their Canadian central labs partner "Clearstone" from investment firm "Czura Thornton" for an undisclosed amount, thus adding Clearstone's global network of central laboratories, including sites in China, France, Singapore and Canada, and the central laboratory protocol management system APOLLO CLPM to their portfolio.


title: Labcorp

text: In November 2011, Labcorp completed the acquisition of more than 90% of the shares of DNA testing company "Orchid Cellmark" for $85 million but had to sell parts of Orchid's paternity business to "DNA Diagnostics Center".


title: Labcorp

text: In May 2012, Labcorp Clinical Trials sold its European biological sampling kit building operation located in Hamburg to clinical supply chain solutions provider "Marken".


title: Labcorp

text: In August 2012, Labcorp completed the acquisition of rival testing lab "Medtox Scientific" for $241 million.


title: Labcorp

text: In September 2013, Labcorp acquired "MuirLab", the clinical laboratory outreach business from John Muir Health.


title: Labcorp

text: In October 2014, Labcorp announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Covance Inc. for approximately $6.1billion. Just a few weeks later, Labcorp completed its $85.3million acquisition of "LipoScience", a developer of diagnostic tests based on nuclear magnetic resonance technology measuring heart disease risk.


title: Labcorp

text: In December 2014, Labcorp announced the completion of its acquisition of "Bode Technology Group, Inc.", a provider of forensic DNA analysis, DNA collection products, and relationship testing, "from SolutionPoint International, Inc." for an undisclosed amount. Bode was described in 2019 as the largest DNA forensic testing company in the USA.


title: Labcorp

text: In October 2015, Labcorp announced the acquisition of "Safe Foods International Holdings, LLC" and its two operating companies, "International Food Network" and "The National Food Laboratory" for an undisclosed amount, thus expanding their capabilities in food and beverage product-development and product-integrity.


title: Labcorp

text: In March 2016, Labcorp completed the acquisition of Torrance, CA-based laboratory firm "Pathology Inc.", a provider of expertise in reproductive FDA donor testing as well as anatomic, molecular and digital pathology services, for an undisclosed amount.


title: Labcorp

text: In August 2016, Labcorp announced it would acquire Sequenom for $371 million including debt, thus expanding its reach overseas, especially in Europe and Asia.


title: Labcorp

text: In October 2016, Labcorp acquired "ClearPath Diagnostics", a provider of laboratory diagnostic services in the Northeastern United States, from private equity firm "Shore Capital Partners" for an undisclosed amount.


title: Labcorp

text: In May 2017, Labcorp acquired the Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories in Spokane, Washington, from Providence Health & Services and Catholic Health Initiatives for an undisclosed sum.


title: Labcorp

text: In March 2020, Labcorp received emergency use authorization from the FDA for a test for Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 to help mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp is one of the six large commercial lab companies that are conducting most of the United States' coronavirus testing, along with ARUP, BioReference Laboratories, Mayo Clinic, Quest Diagnostics, and Sonic Healthcare. According to the American Clinical Laboratory Association, by April 1, together these laboratories had completed 807,000 COVID-19 tests.


title: Labcorp

text: In November 2021, the business announced it would acquire contract research organisation Toxikon. In December, the company announced it would acquire Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. and its liquid biopsy and tissue-based genomic product.


title: Labcorp

text: In February 2022, Labcorp announced that it has entered into agreements with Ascension, one of the nation’s leading Catholic and nonprofit health systems, to manage Ascension's hospital-based laboratories in ten states and purchase select assets of the health system's outreach laboratory business.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp has been criticized for its practice of paying the salaries of genetic counselors in hospitals and doctors' offices, which is perceived to be a possible conflict of interest.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp has been criticised over faulty paternity tests, many of which have gone to court. The most notable case was the 2005 false accusation of Washington hairdresser Andre Chreky, who had to spend $200,000 and years in court proving despite a false-positive test that he was not the father.


title: Labcorp

text: Labcorp has frequently been the subject of controversy and protest in the United Kingdom for its use of Animal Research models. Particularly at its site in Huntingdon, formerly Huntingdon Life Sciences.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: Sara Ann Amato (born November 13, 1980) is an American professional wrestling trainer and retired professional wrestler, best known by her ring name Sara Del Rey. She was a mainstay for Chikara and Shimmer, but also appeared for many other independent promotions in the US, including Ring of Honor (ROH), IWA Mid-South and All Pro Wrestling, as well as Mexico's Lucha Libre Femenil. Del Rey also taped several matches, competing under a mask and using the name Nic Grimes, for the MTV promotion Wrestling Society X.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: Del Rey was the inaugural Shimmer Champion and co-holder of the Shimmer Tag Team Championship with Courtney Rush, making her the promotion's first double champion. In 2012, she became the fourth woman to make it to Pro Wrestling Illustrated's list of top 500 wrestlers in the world. She is currently employed by WWE as the Assistant Head Coach and producer of their developmental territory at NXT, based in the WWE Performance Center.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: As a child, Amato considered herself a fan of professional wrestling, citing Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior as two of her favorites due to their high energy characters and matches. She did not watch it for several years, but became interested again during high school. Amato admits that in high school, she was "really shy and kind of awkward and scared of social situations", which made her doubt whether she would actually make it as a professional wrestler. She briefly attended college following her graduation from high school, but disliked it and decided to become a professional wrestler instead. She initially trained with All Pro Wrestling's boot camp, and was trained by Tommy Drake, Donovan Morgan, and Micheal Modest. In the beginning, Amato had to spend hours training, as wrestling did not come naturally to her. Tommy Drake was later interviewed, admitting Sara was not naturally talented and he didn't think she would make it. But said he is so happy he was wrong, as she was a genuine person and the definition of a book that you don't judge the cover of. She worked her butt off to prove me and everyone else wrong, and that's why she deserves to be where she is. She later went on to train in Japan.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: In 2002, Amato tried out for the Japanese promotion Arsion founded by Aja Kong, and she considers it a highlight of her career.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: On February 15, 2005, she won Impact Zone Wrestling's Women's Championship by defeating Adrenelyn on an event in Japan. Later in 2005, she toured Japan again, and released a video that depicts six of her matches entitled "Sara Del Rey Japan Tour 2005". She also wrestled in Mexico, using the gimmick "The American Angel", in which she wore a wrestling mask. She was unmasked in a match in the Lucha Libre Femenil promotion on December 16, 2005. She later donned a mask once again as Nic Grimes, the storyline sister of Vic Grimes for Wrestling Society X.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: Del Rey debuted for Berwyn, Illinois–based Shimmer Women Athletes at their inaugural show in 2005, where she wrestled Mercedes Martinez to a twenty-minute time limit draw. At "Volume 2", she won a four-way elimination match against Daizee Haze, Lacey and Martinez, by lastly eliminating Haze. On February 12, 2006, she was able to defeat Haze in the main event of "Volume 3", and then Rain at "Volume 4". In the main event of "Volume 5", Del Rey pinned Mercedes Martinez in a singles match. Later in the night, The Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew challenged Martinez to a tag team match, and Del Rey agreed to be Martinez's partner. At "Volume 6", Del Rey and Martinez were defeated by Rain and Lacey. On October 22, Del Rey defeated the debuting Nattie Neidhart. After the match, she was challenged by Martinez to a rematch at "Volume 8", which Sara agreed to. In the main event of "Volume 8", Del Rey lost to Martinez, and suffered her first singles loss in Shimmer.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: On April 7, 2007, Del Rey defeated both Cheerleader Melissa and Nikki Roxx in the main events of "Volume 9" and "Volume 10", leading her to the Shimmer Championship tournament. On June 1, Del Rey advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament by first eliminating Cindy Rogers, and then Alicia. At "Volume 12", she defeated Sarah Stock, and went on to defeat Lacey in the finals to become the first ever Shimmer Champion. Later in the night, she teamed with Nikki Roxx to defeat the Minnesota Home Wrecking Crew. Del Rey made her first successful title defense against Lacey in a rematch at "Volume 14". Del Rey defeated Amazing Kong at "Volume 15", and Sarah Stock in a two out of three falls match at "Volume 16". At "Volume 17", Del Rey teamed up with Allison Danger in a losing effort to the team of MsChif and Cheerleader Melissa. At "Volume 18", MsChif challenged Del Rey to a championship match, which Del Rey accepted. Later in the night, Del Rey lost the Shimmer Championship to MsChif, ending her reign at 329 days.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: On July 5, 2008, Del Rey took part in a 21-woman number one contender's battle royal, but she was eliminated by Portuguese Princess Ariel. Del Rey then attacked Ariel, leading to a match between the two at "Volume 19", which Del Rey won. At "Volume 20", Del Rey defeated Serena Deeb. On October 19, Del Rey was challenged by Deeb to a rematch, which once again was won by Del Rey. At "Volume 22", Del Rey was challenged once again by Deeb, but this time she did not accept. On May 2, 2009, Del Rey defeated Madison Eagles of the Pink Ladies. Later in the night, she and Amazing Kong attacked Shimmer Champion MsChif, only to be scared off by Cheerleader Melissa. At "Volume 24", Del Rey teamed up with Amazing Kong to defeat MsChif and Melissa, becoming the number one contenders to the Shimmer Tag Team Championship. However, at "Volume 26", Del Rey and Kong failed to capture the titles from defending champions Nevaeh and Ashley Lane after being disqualified. The duo proceeded to attack the champions after the match, but they were forced to leave the ring by Serena Deeb and Mercedes Martinez. Later that night, Del Rey and Kong defeated Deeb and Martinez.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: On November 8, Del Rey defeated Jessie McKay. Later that night, she was disqualified in a match against Ayako Hamada, but Hamada ordered that the match be restarted, which Del Rey won. At "Volume 33", Del Rey defeated Nevaeh. At "Volume 34", she was defeated by Jessie McKay in a three-way match that also included Hamada. At "Volume 35", Del Rey defeated Rachel Summerlyn, with help from Daffney. At "Volume 36", Del Rey competed in an 8-woman tag team elimination match, but was eliminated by Hamada. On March 18, 2012, Del Rey and Courtney Rush defeated Hamada and Ayumi Kurihara, the Canadian NINJAs (Nicole Matthews and Portia Perez) and Regeneration X (Allison Danger and Leva Bates) to win the Shimmer Tag Team Championship, making Del Rey the first woman to have held both of Shimmer's championships. On July 7, Del Rey and Rush lost the titles to the Canadian NINJAs.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: Del Rey had been wrestling for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania–based Chikara since May 2006, mainly as a fan favorite. In November 2009, she was placed in her first major storyline in the company, when she turned into a villain and aligned herself with Claudio Castagnoli, Ares, Daizee Haze, Pinkie Sanchez, Tim Donst and Tursas to form the stable Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (BDK). While in BDK, Del Rey began regularly teaming with Haze, and together the two of them picked up victories over tag teams such as The Osirian Portal (Amasis and Ophidian), Los Ice Creams (El Hijo del Ice Cream and Ice Cream, Jr.), The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield and Sugar Dunkerton), Amazing Kong and Raisha Saeed, and Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw. On September 19, 2010, Del Rey wrestled Japanese "joshi" legend Manami Toyota in only her second match in the United States, when she and Claudio Castagnoli were defeated in a tag team match by Toyota and Mike Quackenbush. On October 23, Del Rey represented BDK in the "torneo cibernetico" match, where they faced a team of Chikara originals, and was eliminated from the match by Eddie Kingston. The following day, Del Rey and Haze defeated the Super Smash Bros. (Player Uno and Player Dos) in a tag team match to pick up their third straight victory and, as the first all–female tag team, earn the right to challenge for the "Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas" (tag team championship), at the time held by their stablemates Ares and Claudio Castagnoli. However, Del Rey and Haze never got to cash in their points, as Ares and Castagnoli ordered them to defend them in a four-way elimination match on November 21, where they ended up being eliminated by Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw and losing all of their points. In May 2011, Del Rey entered the "" to determine the first ever Chikara Grand Champion. On July 31, Del Rey scored an upset win over BDK leader Claudio Castagnoli in a tournament match, after which both she and Haze were attacked by Castagnoli. On August 3, Del Rey announced her resignation from BDK. On October 7, Del Rey was eliminated from the "12 Large: Summit", when she was defeated by Mike Quackenbush. On November 12, Del Rey was part of Team Hallowicked in the eighth annual "torneo cibernetico", facing a team of members of BDK and The Batiri. Del Rey eventually won the match by pinning her former stablemate Tim Donst. During December's "JoshiMania" weekend, Del Rey picked up wins over Japanese wrestlers Aja Kong, Tsubasa Kuragaki and Ayako Hamada. In early 2012, Del Rey began feuding with the Batiri stable, which culminated on June 2 at the pay-per-view, where Del Rey and Saturyne defeated the Batiri by disqualification in a two-on-three handicap match. On July 28, Del Rey received her first shot at the Chikara Grand Championship, but was unable to dethrone the defending champion, Eddie Kingston. The following day, Del Rey was defeated by Icarus in her Chikara farewell match.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: In 2006, Del Rey feuded with Daizee Haze, whom she defeated on June 3, 2006 at a Ring of Honor (ROH) show. She was part of the team the Dangerous Angels, with Allison Danger, and the two competed as a team in ROH. One of the few female mainstays of ROH, Del Rey was a member of Sweet & Sour Inc., a faction of wrestlers managed by Larry Sweeney. During her time in the faction, she was paired with Chris Hero by Sweeney and dubbed the "Intergender Heavyweight Tag Team Champions", though in reality, the "titles" were never recognized by ROH. She walked out of the faction after Sweeney interrupted a match between her and Daizee Haze on the April 11 ROH show and berated her. On the next ROH show which took place the next day, Sweeney claimed, in storyline, that he was "grooming" Del Rey for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and she responded by saying she was a wrestler and not a Diva. She returned as a "proud member" of Sweet & Sour Inc. at the May 9 ROH show. After Sweeney's departure from ROH, Del Rey followed Chris Hero and became a member of The Kings of Wrestling.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: In the second episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet, Del Rey defeated Daizee Haze. As part of the fourth episode, she lost in a tag team match, along with Sassy Stephie, against Haze and Nevaeh. She also took part in a three-way non-title match against Haze and Shimmer Champion MsChif, which Mschif won. She also appeared in a match on the 17th episode, when she and MsChif defeated the team of Haze and Nevaeh. On September 28, 2009, Del Rey won a match against Nikki Roxx.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: Del Rey returned at the June 29 tapings of "Ring of Honor Wrestling", saving Adam Cole and Eddie Edwards from a beat down from Mike Bennett, Brutal Bob and Maria Kanellis. On August 11 at Boiling Point, Del Rey and Edwards defeated Bennett and Kanellis in a tag team match.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: Del Rey debuted for Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) at their very first show on January 10, 2009, where she defeated Daizee Haze. On the second show on May 9, she defeated Amazing Kong, and later in the night won a battle royal, becoming the number one contender to the inaugural JAPW Women's Championship. On June 27, she was able to defeat ODB in Jersey City, New Jersey to become the inaugural JAPW Women's Champion. She was also able to retain the title against Portia Perez at "European Homicide" on August 1. She made her second title defense against Hailey Hatred in Beachwood, New Jersey on September 12. At "Halloween Hell", she squashed Roxie Cotton to make her third title defense. On November 13, Del Rey successfully defended the championship against Alissa Flash at a Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) house show in Wayne, New Jersey. The following day at JAPW "Girl Power", Del Rey fought Cheerleader Melissa to a double disqualification, after Hailey Hatred attacked both Del Rey and Melissa. Later that night. it was announced that at the next JAPW show, the three women would face off in a three-way no disqualification match, with Del Rey's championship on the line. Del Rey made a successful title defense against Sumie Sakai at "Season's Beatings". On January 9, 2010, Del Rey won the three-way no disqualification match, thus retaining the championship. On January 23, she defeated Madison Rayne at JAPW's 12th Anniversary Show to retain the championship. Del Rey continued to defend her title, and was able to defeat Hailey Hatred in a Falls Count Anywhere match at "Wild Card", a JAPW show where the champions had to defend their titles against mystery opponents. She defended the title against Ayumi Kurihara at "Old School" on April 17, and against Annie Social at "Notorious Thunder" on May 22. On July 3, Del Rey wrestled at another TNA house show, losing to Angelina Love in a match for the number one contender-ship to the TNA Knockouts Championship. On November 20, she retained the championship against Mia Yim, and against LuFisto at the 13th Anniversary Show on December 11. After Del Rey signed with WWE in July 2012, the JAPW Women's Championship was declared vacant, ending her reign at 1,108 days.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: On September 5, 2009, Del Rey took part at the debut show of NCW Femmes Fatales, where she defeated Cherry Bomb. Later in the night, after LuFisto's match, she attacked the owner of the promotion and challenged her to a match at the next show. Del Rey took part in the tournament to determine the inaugural NCW FF Champion, but lost to LuFisto in the first round on June 5, 2010.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: On July 9, 2012, it was reported that Del Rey had signed a contract with WWE. In September 2012, Del Rey became the first ever female trainer in WWE's developmental territory NXT, based at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. She is currently being referred to by her real name.


title: Sara Del Rey

text: On May 19, 2015, Amato was promoted to NXT assistant head coach by WWE, following the resignation of Bill DeMott. She is currently working side by side with the current NXT head coach, Matt Bloom.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: An anime television series adaptation by Science SARU aired from January to March 2020. A live-action television series was broadcast from April to May 2020. A live-action film adaptation premiered in September 2020.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: First year high schooler Midori Asakusa loves anime so much, she insists that "concept is everything" in animation. While she spends her time doodling endless ideas and settings in her sketchbook, she has not taken the first step to creating anime, insisting that she cannot do it alone. After Asakusa's money-loving best friend Sayaka Kanamori notices her genius and drive, and when it becomes clear that their classmate and charismatic fashion model Tsubame Mizusaki wants to be an animator, the energetic trio start an animation club. Together, the three aim to realize the "ultimate world" that exists in their minds, and come to see the power that fiction and imagination have on their lives and the world around them.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: The club is founded to produce the animation Asakusa and the others made. An anime cultural workshop already exists at Shibahama high school, but Kanamori lied and called the new club "A film club" and a teacher approved it. It was created because Mizusaki's parents forbade her from joining the anime club.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" is written and illustrated by Sumito Ōwara. The series started in Shogakukan's "Monthly Big Comic Spirits" on July 27, 2016. Shogakukan has compiled its chapters into individual "tankōbon" volumes. The first volume was published on January 12, 2017. As of July 12, 2022, seven "tankōbon" volumes have been published.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: In March 2020, Dark Horse Comics announced the acquisition of the manga for English release which originally would have started on October 6, 2020, but was postponed to November 4, 2020.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced on May 7, 2019. Produced by Shogakukan, Warner Bros. Japan and Science SARU, the series was directed by Masaaki Yuasa, who also handled series composition. Yūichirō Kido wrote the scripts, Naoyuki Asano designed the characters, and Oorutaichi composed the music. The series aired from January 5 to March 22, 2020, on NHK General TV. The series ran for 12 episodes. Chelmico performed the series' opening theme song "Easy Breezy," while the band performed the series' ending theme song . The popularity of the series led to it being rebroadcast on NHK Educational TV in Japan in October 2021.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: It was streamed by Crunchyroll worldwide, excluding Asia. On May 18, 2021, it was announced Sentai Filmworks picked up the home video rights.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: A live-action film adaptation was announced on October 15, 2019. The film was directed by Tsutomu Hanabusa and stars members of the idol group Nogizaka46 Minami Umezawa, Asuka Saito, and Mizuki Yamashita as Sayaka Kanamori, Midori Asakusa, and Tsubame Mizusaki respectively. It was originally scheduled to release in Japan on May 15, 2020, but was postponed to September 25, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: On February 17, 2020, it was announced that the film would be preceded by a six episode television mini-series, with the same staff and cast as the film. The series premiered on April 5, 2020, on MBS.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: After the debut of the anime adaptation in January 2020, the manga had over 500,000 copies in circulation.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: The manga series was nominated for the 11th Manga Taisho awards in 2018, and it won the top Bros. Comic Award in 2017. The series ranked #15 along with "Dr. Stone" on a list of the top manga of 2018 for male readers put together by "Kono Manga ga Sugoi!". The School Library Journal listed the first volume of the series as one of the top 10 manga of 2021.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: The anime series received widespread critical acclaim. During its airing in Japan, the series won one of the four monthly Galaxy Awards for March, becoming one of the candidates the association's yearly Galaxy Awards. Following the conclusion of the series, "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" received extensive positive reviews as one of the best Japanese animated series of both the season and the year at large. Both "The New York Times" and "The New Yorker" highlighted the series as one of the best television shows of 2020, with "The New York Times" naming it to their "Best TV Shows of 2020" and "Best International Shows of 2020" lists, and "The New Yorker" identifying it as one of the Best TV Shows of 2020. Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello identified it as a personal favorite in a 2021 featured article in "The Guardian". The series received nominations in 10 categories in the 2021 Crunchyroll Anime Awards and won for Director of the Year and Best Animation. At the 2021 Anime Awards Brazil, an event presented in cooperation with Brazilian entertainment website Omelete, the series received nominations in 9 categories and won 7, including Anime of the Year, Best Director, Best Screenwriter, and Best Animation. "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" was also nominated for 8 awards (in 7 categories) for the 2021 Anime Trending Awards. The series was awarded the Grand Prize for Television Animation at the 2021 Tokyo Anime Awards Festival, and won the animation division's Grand Prize of the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival.


title: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

text: The live action adaptation won Best Picture for Live-Action Visual Effects category in the 2020 CGWorld Awards. Studio Buckhorn, the studio that worked on the effects, also won the Grand Prize.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Globally, large media conglomerates include Bertelsmann, National Amusements (Paramount Global), Sony Group Corporation, News Corp, Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Corporation, Hearst Communications, Amazon (MGM Holdings Inc.), Grupo Globo (South America), and Lagardère Group.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: As of 2022, the largest media conglomerates in terms of revenue are Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount Global.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Media mergers occur when one media company buys another. The current landscape of corporate media ownership in the United States of America can be described as an oligopoly.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Media integrity is at risk when small number of companies and individuals control the media market. Media integrity refers to the ability of a media outlet to serve the public interest and democratic process, making it resilient to institutional corruption within the media system, economy of influence, conflicting dependence and political clientelism.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Net neutrality is also at stake when media mergers occur. Net neutrality involves a lack of restrictions on content on the internet, however, with big businesses supporting campaigns financially they tend to have influence over political issues, which can translate into their mediums. These big businesses, that also have control over internet usage or the airwaves, could possibly make the content available biased from their political stand point, or they could restrict usage for conflicting political views, therefore eliminating net neutrality.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Concentration of media ownership is very frequently seen as a problem of contemporary media and society.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Johannes von Dohnanyi, in a 2003 report published by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)'s Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media, argued market concentration among media—whether driven by domestic or foreign investors—should be "closely monitored" because "Horizontal concentration may cause dangers to media pluralism and diversity, while vertical concentration may result in entry barriers for new competitors." Von Dohnanyi argues that to "safeguard free and independent print media and protect professional journalism as one of the cornerstones of constitutional democracy" there should be standards for editorial independence, better labor protections for professional journalists, and independent institutions "to monitor the implementation and observance of all laws and regulations regarding concentration processes, media pluralism, content diversity and journalistic freedoms."


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Robert W. McChesney argues that the concentration of media ownership is caused by a shift to neoliberal deregulation policies, which is a market-driven approach. Deregulation effectively removes governmental barriers to allow for the commercial exploitation of media. Motivation for media firms to merge includes increased profit-margins, reduced risk and maintaining a competitive edge. In contrast to this, those who support deregulation have argued that cultural trade barriers and regulations harm consumers and domestic support in the form of subsidies hinders countries to develop their own strong media firms. The opening of borders is more beneficial to countries than maintaining protectionist regulations.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Critics of media deregulation and the resulting concentration of ownership fear that such trends will only continue to reduce the diversity of information provided, as well as to reduce the accountability of information providers to the public. The ultimate consequence of consolidation, critics argue, is a poorly informed public, restricted to a reduced array of media options that offer only information that does not harm the media oligopoly's growing range of interests.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: For those critics, media deregulation is a dangerous trend, facilitating an increase in concentration of media ownership, and subsequently reducing the overall quality and diversity of information communicated through major media channels. Increased concentration of media ownership can lead to corporate censorship affecting a wide range of critical thought.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The concentration of media ownership is commonly regarded as one of the crucial aspects reducing media pluralism. A high concentration of the media market increases the chances to reduce the plurality of political, cultural and social points of views.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Even if ownership of the media is one of the main concerns when it comes to assessing media pluralism, the concept of media pluralism is broader as it touches many aspects, from merger control rules to editorial freedom, the status of public service broadcasters, the working conditions of journalists, the relationship between media and politics, representation of local and regional communities and the inclusion of minorities' voices. Also, it embraces all measures guaranteeing citizens' access to diversified sources so to allow the formation of a plurality of opinions in the public sphere without undue influence of dominant powers.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Furthermore, media pluralism has a two-fold dimension, or rather internal and external. Internal pluralism concerns pluralism within a specific media organisation: in this regard, many countries request public broadcast services to account for a variety of views and opinions, including those of minority groups. External pluralism applies instead to the overall media landscape, for instance in terms of the number of media outlets operating in a given country.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Media ownership can pose serious challenges to pluralism when owners interfere with journalists' independence and editorial line. However, in a free market economy, owners must have the capacity to decide the strategy of their company to remain competitive in the market. Also, pluralism does not mean neutrality and lack of opinion, as having an editorial line is an integral part of the role of editors provided that this line is transparent and explicit to both the staff and audience.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: "Within any free market economy, the level of resources available for the provision of media will be constrained principally by the size and wealth of that economy, and the propensity of its inhabitants to consume media." [Gillian Doyle; 2002:15] Those countries that have a relatively large market, like the United Kingdom, France or Spain have more financial background to support diversity of output and have the ability to keep more media companies in the market (as they are there to make profit). More diverse output and fragmented ownership will, obviously, support pluralism. In contrast, small markets like Ireland or Hungary suffer from the absence of the diversity of output given in countries with bigger markets. It means that "support for the media through direct payment" and "levels of consumers expenditure", furthermore "the availability of advertising support" [Gillian Doyle; 2002:15] are less in these countries, due to the low number of audience. Overall, the size and wealth of the market determine the diversity of both media output and media ownership.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The consolidation of cost functions and cost-sharing. Cost-sharing is a common practice in monomedia and cross media. For example, "for multi-product television or radio broadcasters, the more homogeneity possible between different services held in common ownership (or the more elements within a programme schedule which can be shared between 'different' stations), the greater the opportunity to reap economies". Though the main concern of pluralism is that different organization under different ownership may buy the same e.g. news stories from the same news-supplier agency. In the UK, the biggest news-supplier is The Press Association (PA). Here is a quoted text from PA web site: "The Press Association supplies services to every national and regional daily newspaper, major broadcasters, online publishers and a wide range of commercial organisations." Overall, in a system where all different media organizations gather their stories from the same source, we can't really call that system pluralist. That is where diversity of output comes in.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Media privatization and the lessening of state dominance over media content has continued since 2012. In the Arab region, the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) counted 1,230 television stations broadcasting via Arab and international satellites, of which 133 were state-owned and 1,097 private. According to the ASBU Report, these numbers serve as evidence of a decline in the percentage of state channels and a rise in national private and foreign public stations targeting the Arab region. The reduction of direct government ownership over the whole media sector is commonly registered as a positive trend, but this has paralleled by a growth in outlets with a sectarian agenda.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In Africa, some private media outlets have maintained close ties to governments or individual politicians, while media houses owned by politically non-aligned individuals have struggled to survive, often in the face of advertising boycotts by state agencies. In almost all regions, models of public service broadcasting have been struggling for funding. In Western, Central and Eastern Europe, funds directed to public service broadcasting have been stagnating or declining since 2012.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: New types of cross-ownership have emerged in the past five years that have spurred new questions about where to draw the line between media and other industries. A notable case has been the acquisition of "The Washington Post" by the founder of online retailer Amazon. While the move initially raised concerns about the newspaper's independence, the newspaper has significantly increased its standing in the online media—and print—and introduced significant innovations.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The community-centred media ownership model continues to survive in some areas, especially in isolated, rural or disadvantaged areas, and mostly pertaining to radio. Through this model, not-for-profit media outlets are run and managed by the communities they serve.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Controls over media ownership in Australia are laid down in the "Broadcasting Services Act 1992", administered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). Even with laws in place Australia has a high concentration of media ownership. Ownership of national and the newspapers of each capital city are dominated by two corporations, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Australia, (which was founded in Adelaide as News Limited) and Nine Entertainment Co. These two corporations along with Seven West Media co-own Australian Associated Press which distributes the news and then sells it on to other outlets such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Although much of the everyday mainstream news is drawn from the Australian Associated Press, all the privately owned media outlets still compete with each other for exclusive pop culture news.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Rural and regional media is dominated by Australian Community Media, with significant holdings in all states and territories.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Daily Mail and General Trust operate the DMG Radio Australia commercial radio networks in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia. Formed in 1996, it has since become one of the largest radio media companies in the country. The company currently own more than 60 radio stations across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: There are rules governing foreign ownership of Australian media and these rules were loosened by the former Howard Government.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: "Media Watch" is an independent media watchdog televised on the public broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which is one of two government-administered channels, the other being Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In late 2011, the Finkelstein Inquiry into media regulation was launched, and reported its findings back to the federal government in early 2012.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) formerly published the Wellington-based newspapers The Dominion and The Evening Post, in addition to purchasing a large shareholding in pay TV broadcaster Sky Media Limited in 1997. These two newspapers merged to form the Dominion Post in 2002, and in 2003, sold its entire print media division to Fairfax New Zealand. The remainder of the company officially merged with Sky Media Limited in 2005 to form Sky Network Television Limited.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: When INL ceased publishing the "Auckland Star" in 1991, "The New Zealand Herald" became the Auckland region's sole daily newspaper. The "New Zealand Herald" and the "New Zealand Listener", formerly privately held by the Wilson & Horton families, was sold to APN News & Media in 1996. The long-running news syndication agency NZPA announced that it would close down in 2011, with operations to be taken over by 3 separate agencies, APN's APNZ, Fairfax's FNZN and AAP's NZN, all owned by Australian parent companies. In 2014, APN's New Zealand division officially changed its name to NZME, in order to reflect the company's convergence with its radio division The Radio Network. As of early 2015, Fairfax New Zealand and NZME have a near duopoly on newspapers and magazines in New Zealand. In May 2016, NZME and Fairfax NZ announced merger talks, pending Commerce Commission approval.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Commercial radio stations are largely divided up between MediaWorks New Zealand and NZME, with MediaWorks also owning TV3 and C4 (now The Edge TV). Television New Zealand, although 100% state-owned, has been run on an almost entirely commercial basis since the late 1980s, in spite of previous attempts to steer it towards a more public service-oriented role. Its primary public-service outlet, TVNZ7, ceased broadcasting in 2012 due to non-renewal of funding, and the youth-oriented TVNZ6 was rebranded as the short-lived commercial channel TVNZ U. In addition, the TVNZ channels Kidzone (and formerly TVNZ Heartland) are only available through Sky Network Television and not on the Freeview platform.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Sky Network Television has had an effective monopoly on pay TV in New Zealand since its nearest rival Saturn Communications (later part of TelstraClear and now Vodafone New Zealand) began wholesaling Sky content in 2002. However, in 2011, TelstraClear CEO Allan Freeth warned it would review its wholesale agreement with Sky unless it allowed TelstraClear to purchase non-Sky content.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Canada has the biggest concentrated TV ownership out of all the G8 countries and it comes in second place for the most concentrated television viewers.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada are regulated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), an independent governing agency that aims to serve the needs and interests of citizens, industries, interest groups and the government. The CRTC does not regulate newspapers or magazines.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Apart from a relatively small number of community broadcasters, media in Canada are primarily owned by a small number of groups, including Bell Canada, the Shaw family (via Corus Entertainment and Shaw Communications), Rogers Communications, Quebecor, and the government-owned CBC/Radio-Canada. Each of these companies holds a diverse mix of television, specialty television, and radio operations. Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and Quebecor also engage in the telecommunications industry with their ownership of internet providers, television providers, and mobile carriers, while Rogers is also involved in publishing.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In 2007, CTVglobemedia, Rogers Media and Quebecor all expanded significantly through the acquisitions of CHUM Limited, CityTV and Osprey Media, respectively. In 2010, Canwest Global Communications, having filed for bankruptcy, sold its television assets to Shaw (through a new subsidiary, Shaw Media) and spun off its newspaper holdings into Postmedia Network, a new company founded by the "National Post"'s CEO Paul Godfrey. Later that year, Bell also announced that it would acquire the remaining shares of CTVglobemedia (which was originally majority owned by Bell when it was formed in 2001; Bell had reduced its stake in the following years), forming Bell Media.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Between 1990 and 2005 there were a number of media corporate mergers and takeovers in Canada. For example, in 1990, 17.3% of daily newspapers were independently owned; whereas in 2005, 1% were. These changes, among others, caused the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications to launch a study of Canadian news media in March 2003. (This topic had been examined twice in the past, by the Davey Commission (1970) and the Kent Commission (1981), both of which produced recommendations that were never implemented in any meaningful way.)


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The Senate Committee's final report, released in June 2006, expressed concern about the effects of the current levels of news media ownership in Canada. Specifically, the committee discussed their concerns regarding the following trends: the potential of media ownership concentration to limit news diversity and reduce news quality; the CRTC and Competition Bureau's ineffectiveness at stopping media ownership concentration; the lack of federal funding for the CBC and the broadcaster's uncertain mandate and role; diminishing employment standards for journalists (including less job security, less journalistic freedom, and new contractual threats to intellectual property); a lack of Canadian training and research institutes; and difficulties with the federal government's support for print media and the absence of funding for the internet-based news media.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The Senate report expressed particular concern about the concentration of ownership in the province of New Brunswick, where the Irving business empire owns all the English-language daily newspapers and most of the weeklies. Senator Joan Fraser, author of the report, stated, "We didn't find anywhere else in the developed world a situation like the situation in New Brunswick."


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The report provided 40 recommendations and 10 suggestions (for areas outside of federal government jurisdiction), including legislation amendments that would trigger automatic reviews of a proposed media merger if certain thresholds are reached, and CRTC regulation revisions to ensure that access to the broadcasting system is encouraged and that a diversity of news and information programming is available through these services.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Public inquires into the concentration of ownership and its impact upon democracy. The Canadian regulatory framework imposes requirements upon the protection and enhancement of Canadian culture (through regulation, subsidies and the operation of the CBC). Increasing acceptance of media/news as commercial enterprise in 1990s driven by: hegemony of new-liberalism, role of commodified information technology in economic growth, commitment to private sector "champions" of Canadian culture.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In Brazil, the concentration of media ownership seems to have manifested itself very early. Dr. Venício A. de Lima noted in 2003:


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Lima points to other factors that would make media concentration easier, particularly in broadcasting: the failure of legal norms that limit the equity interest of the same economic group in various broadcasting organizations; a short period (five years) for resell broadcasting concessions, facilitating the concentration by the big media groups through the purchase of independent stations, and no restrictions to the formation of national broadcasting networks. He cites examples of horizontal, vertical, crossed and "in cross" concentration (a Brazilian peculiarity).


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The UNESCO office in Brasília has expressed its concern over the existence of an outdated code of telecommunications (1962), which no longer meets the expectations generated by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 in the political and social fields, and the inability of the Brazilian government to establish an independent regulatory agency to manage the media. Attempts in this direction have been pointed by the mainstream media as attacks on freedom of expression, the trend of the political left in the entire Latin American continent.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Since the 1980, a significant debate has developed at the European level concerning the regulation of media ownership and the principles to be adopted to regulate media ownership concentration. Both the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU) have tried to formulate a distinctive and comprehensive media policy, including on the issue of concentration. However, the emphasis of both the organisations was more on strengthening media diversity and pluralism than on limiting concentration, even though they have often expressed the need for common European media concentration regulations. However, the European Union enforces a common regulation for environmental protection, consumer protection and human rights, but it has none for media pluralism.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Although there is no specific media concentration legislation at the European level, a number of existing legal instruments such as the Amsterdam Protocol, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and actions programs contribute directly and indirectly to curbing media concentration at EU level.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: When it comes to regulating media concentration at the common European level, there is a conflict between Member states and the European Commission (EC). Even if Member states do not publicly challenge the need for common regulation on media concentration, they push to incorporate their own regulatory approach at the EU level and are reluctant to give the European Union their regulatory power on the issue of media concentration.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The Council of Europe's initiative promoting media pluralism and curbing media concentration dates back to the mid-1970s. Several resolutions, recommendations, declarations by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers and studies by experts' groups have addressed the issue since then. The council's approach has been mainly addressed at defining and protecting media pluralism, defined in terms of pluralism of media content in order to allow a plurality of ideas and opinions.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Within the European Union, two main standpoints have emerged in the debate: on the one hand, the European Parliament has favoured the idea that, considering the crucial role that media play in the functioning of democratic systems, policies in this field should prevent excessive concentration in order to guarantee pluralism and diversity. On the other hand, the European Commission has privileged the understanding that the media sector should be regulated, as any other economic field, following the principles of market harmonization and liberalization.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Indeed, media concentration issues can be addressed both by general competition policies and by specific media sector rules. According to some scholars, given the vital importance of contemporary media, sector-specific competition rules in the media industries should be enhanced. Within the EU, the Council regulation 4064/89/EEC on the control of concentrations between undertakings as part of European competition legislation covered also media concentration cases. The need for sector-specific regulation has been widely supported by both media scholars and the European Parliament. In the 1980s, when preparing legislation on cross-border television many experts and MEPs argued for including provisions for media concentration in the EU directive but these efforts failed. In 1992, the Commission of the European Communities published a policy document named "Pluralism and Media Concentration in the internal Market – an assessment of the need for Community action" which outlined three options on the issue of media concentration regulation at the Community level, i.e. no specific action to be taken; action regulating transparency; and action to harmonize laws. Out of these options, the first one was chosen but the debate on this decision lasted for years. Council regulation as a tool for regulating media concentration was excluded and the two proposals on a media concentration directive advanced in the mid 1990s were not backed by the commission. As a consequence, efforts at legislating media concentration at Community level were phased out by the end of the 1990s.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Despite a wide consensus over the idea that the vital importance of contemporary media justifies to regulate media concentration through sector-specific concentration rules going beyond the general competition policy, the need for sector specific regulation has been challenged in recent years due to the peculiar evolution of the media industry in the digital environment and media convergence. In practice, sector-specific media concentration rules have been abolished in some European countries in recent years.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: As a consequence, scholars Harcourt and Picard argue that "the trend has been to remove ownership rules and restrictions on media ownership within Europe in order that 'domestic champions' can bulk up to 'fend off' the US threat. This has been a key argument for the loosening of ownership rules within Europe."


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In 2002, the European Parliament tried to revitalize the efforts on regulating media concentration at the European level and adopted a resolution on media concentration which called on the European Commission to launch a broad and comprehensive consultation on media pluralism and media concentration and to prepare a Green Paper on the issue by the end of 2003. The European Commission failed to meet this deadline. In the following years, during the process of amending the Televisions Without Frontiers directive, which was adopted by the EP and the Council in 2007, the issue of media concentration was discussed, but it did not represent the core of the debate. In 2003, the European Commission issued a policy document named "The future of European Regulatory Audiovisual Policy" which stressed that, in order to ensure media pluralism, measures should aim at limiting the level of media concentration by establishing "maximum holdings in media companies and prevent[ing] cumulative control or participation in several media companies at the same time".


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In 2007, reacting to concerns on media concentration and its repercussion on pluralism and freedom of expression in the EU member states raised by the European Parliament and by NGOs, the European Commission launched a new three-phase plan on media pluralism


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In October 2009, a European Union Directive was proposed to set for all member states common and higher standards for media pluralism and freedom of expression. The proposal was put to a vote in the European Parliament and rejected by just three votes. The directive was supported by the liberal-centrists, the progressives and the greens, and was opposed by the European People's Party. Unexpectedly, the Irish liberals made an exception by voting against the directive, and later revealed that they had been pressured by the Irish right-wing government to do so.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Following this debate, the European Commission commissioned a large, in depth study published in 2009 aiming to identify the indicators to be adopted to assess media pluralism in Europe.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The "Independent Study on Indicators for Media Pluralism in the Member States – Towards a Risk-Based Approach" provided a prototype of indicators and country reports for 27 EU member states. After years of refining and preliminary testings, the study resulted in the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM), a yearly monitoring carried out by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Freedom at the European University Institute in Florence on a variety of aspects affecting media pluralism, including also the concentration of media ownership is considered. To assess the risk that media ownership concentration in a given country may actually hinder media pluralism, the MPM takes into account three specific elements:


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In 2015, the MPM was carried out in 19 European countries. The results of the monitoring activity in the field of media market concentration identify five countries as facing a high risk: Finland, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Poland and Spain. There are nine countries facing a medium risk: Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Sweden. Finally, only five countries face a low risk: Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia. In the monitoring carried out in 2014, 7 of 9 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, the UK) scored a high risk in audience concentration.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: A 2016 report based on data collected by MAVISE, a free online database on audiovisual services and companies in Europe, highlights the growing number of Pan-European media companies in the field of broadcasting and divides them into different categories: multi‐country media groups, controlling "channels that play an important role in various national markets (for example Modern Times Group, CEME, RTL, a Luxembourg-based media group operating in 10 countries, and Sanoma). These groups generally control a high market share in the countries in which they operate, and have gradually emerged through the acquisition of existing channels or by establishing new companies in countries in which they were not already present. The four groups RTL Group, CEME, Modern Times Group and Sanoma are major players (in the top 4 regarding audience share) in 19 European countries (RTL Group, CEME and Modern Times Group are major players in 17 countries). Pan‐European broadcasters operate with a unique identity and well recognized brands across Europe. Most of them are based in the United States and have progressively expanded their activities in the European market. In many cases, these groups evolved from being content creators to also deliver such contents through channels renamed after the original brands.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Examples of such pan-European groups include Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, and The Walt Disney Company, pan‐European distribution groups (cable and satellite operators), companies that operate at the European level in the distribution sector via cable, satellite or IPTV. The emergence of major actors operating in this field has been made possible mainly thanks to the process of digitalization and benefit of specific economies of scale.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In the Czech Republic about 80% of the newspapers and magazines were owned by German and Swiss corporations in 2007, as the two main press groups Vltava Labe Media and Mafra were (completely or partly) controlled by the German group Rheinisch-Bergische Druckerei- und Verlagsgesellschaft (Mediengruppe Rheinische Post), but were both later purchased by Czech-owned conglomerates Penta Investments and Agrofert in 2015 and 2013 respectively. Several major media previously owned by Swiss company Ringier became Czech-owned through their acquisition by the Czech News Center in 2013.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Czech governments have defended foreign newspaper ownership as a manifestation of the principle of the free movement of capital.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The weekly "Respekt" is published by "R-Presse", the majority of whose shares are owned by former Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg. The national television market is dominated by four terrestrial stations, two public (Czech TV1 and Czech TV2) and two private (NOVA TV and Prima TV), which draw 95% of audience share. Concerning the diversity of output, this is limited by a series of factors: the average low level of professional education among Czech journalists is compensated by "informal professionalization", leading to a degree of conformity in approaches; political parties hold strong ties in Czech media, especially print, where more than 50% of Czech journalists identify with the Right, while only 16% express sympathy for the Left; and the process of commercialization and "tabloidization" has increased, lowering differentiation of content in Czech print media.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Axel Springer AG is one of the largest newspaper publishing companies in Europe, claiming to have over 150 newspapers and magazines in over 30 countries in Europe. In the 1960s and 1970s the company's media followed an aggressive conservative policy (see Springerpresse). It publishes Germany's only nationwide tabloid, "Bild", and one of Germany's most important broadsheets, "Die Welt". Axel Springer also owns a number of regional newspapers, especially in Saxony and in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, giving the company a de facto monopoly in the latter case. An attempt to buy one of Germany's two major private TV Groups, ProSiebenSat.1, in 2006, was withdrawn due to large concerns by regulation authorities as well as by parts of the public. The company is also active in Hungary, where it is the biggest publisher of regional newspapers, and in Poland, where it owns the best-selling tabloid "Fakt", one of the nation's most important broadsheets, "Dziennik", and is one of the biggest shareholder in the second-ranked private TV company, Polsat.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Bertelsmann is one of the world's largest media companies. It owns RTL Group, which is one of the two major private TV companies in both Germany and the Netherlands and also owning assets in Belgium, France, UK, Spain, Czech and Hungary. Bertelsmann also owns Gruner + Jahr, Germany's biggest popular magazine publisher, including popular news magazine "Stern" and a 26% share in investigative news magazine "Der Spiegel". Bertelsmann also owns Random House, a book publisher, ranked first in the English-speaking world and second in Germany.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In Ireland, the company Independent News & Media owns many national newspapers: the "Evening Herald", "Irish Independent", "Sunday Independent", "Sunday World" and "Irish Daily Star". It also owns 29.9% of the "Sunday Tribune". Broadcast media is divided between state owned RTÉ, which operates several radio stations and television channels and started digital radio and television services in the early 2010s, TG4, an Irish language broadcaster, and TV3, a commercial television operator. Denis O'Brien an Irish billionaire with a fortune partly accumulated through the Esat Digifone licence controversy, formed Communicorp Group Ltd in 1989, with the company currently owning 42 radio stations in 8 European countries, including Ireland's Newstalk, Today FM, Dublin's 98FM, SPIN 1038 and SPIN South West. In January 2006, O'Brien took a stake in Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (IN&M). As of May 2012, he holds a 29.9% stake in the company, making him the largest shareholder; the O'Reilly family's stake is around 13%.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister of Italy, is the major shareholder of – by far – Italy's biggest (and de facto only) private free TV company, Mediaset; Italy's biggest publisher, Mondadori; and Italy's biggest advertising company, . One of Italy's nationwide dailies, "Il Giornale", is owned by his brother, Paolo Berlusconi, and another, "Il Foglio", by his former wife, Veronica Lario. Berlusconi has often been criticized for using the media assets he owns to advance his political career.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In Britain and Ireland, Rupert Murdoch owns best-selling tabloid "The Sun" as well as the broadsheet "The Times" and "Sunday Times", in addition having also owned 39% of satellite broadcasting network BSkyB. In March 2011, the United Kingdom provisionally approved Murdoch to buy the remaining 61% of BSkyB; however, subsequent events ("News of the World" hacking scandal and its closure in July 2011) leading to the Leveson Inquiry have halted this takeover. In 2019, despite the British government granting formal permission for a new take over of Sky (conditional on the divestiture of Sky News), Fox were outbid by American conglomerate Comcast.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Reach own five major national titles, the "Daily Mirror", "Sunday Mirror" and "The Sunday People", and the Scottish "Sunday Mail" and "Daily Record" as well as over 100 regional newspapers. They claim to have a monthly digital reach of 73 million people.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) own the "Daily Mail" and "The Mail on Sunday", "Ireland on Sunday", and free London daily "Metro", and control a large proportion of regional media, including through subsidiary Northcliffe Media, in addition to large shares in ITN and GCap Media.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Richard Desmond owns "OK! magazine", the "Daily Express", and the "Daily Star". He used to own Channel 5; on 1 May 2014 the channel was acquired by Viacom for £450 million (US$759 million).


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: The "Evening Standard" and former print publication "The Independent" are both partly owned by British-Russian media boss Evgeny Lebedev.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Independent Radio News, which has a contract with Sky News, produces news for the most popular commercial radio stations.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In India a few political parties also own media organizations, for example the proprietors of Kalaignar TV are close aides of Tamil Nadu's former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. So is also the case with Sun TV. SRM university owner Pachamuthu, a member of Parliament, has stakes in Pudhiyathalaimurai News Channel. AMMK General Secretary TTV Dinakaran, MLA's close aides run Jaya TV.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In Israel, Arnon Mozes owns the most widespread Hebrew newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, the most widespread Russian newspaper Vesty, the most popular Hebrew news website Ynet, and 17% of the cable TV firm HOT. Moreover, Mozes owns the Reshet TV firm, which is one of the two operators of the most popular channel in Israel, Channel 2.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In Mexico there are only two national broadcast television service companies, Televisa and Azteca. These two broadcasters together administer 434 of the 461 total commercial television stations in the country (94.14%).


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Though concern about the existence of a duopoly had been around for some time, a press uproar sparked in 2006, when a controversial reform to the Federal Radio and Television Law, seriously hampered the entry of new competitors, like Cadena Tres.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Televisa also owns subscription TV enterprises and SKY, a publishing company , and the Televisa Radio broadcast radio network, creating a de facto media monopoly in many regions of the country.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: An infographic created by Jason at Frugal Dad states that in 1983, 90% of US media was controlled by 50 companies, and that in 2011, 90% was controlled by just 6 companies. One of the companies listed, News Corporation, was split into two separate companies on June 28, 2013, with publishing assets and Australian media assets going to News Corp and broadcasting and media assets going to 21st Century Fox.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In the United States, movie production has been dominated by major studios since the early 20th century; before that, there was a period in which Edison's Trust monopolized the industry. The music and television industries recently witnessed cases of media consolidation, with Sony Music Entertainment's parent company merging their music division with Bertelsmann AG's BMG to form Sony BMG and Tribune's The WB and CBS Corp.'s UPN merging to form The CW. In the case of Sony BMG, there existed a "Big Five" (now "Big Four") of major record companies, while The CW's creation was an attempt to consolidate ratings and stand up to the "Big Four" of American network (terrestrial) television (this despite the fact that the CW was, in fact, partially owned by one of the Big Four in CBS). In television, the vast majority of broadcast and basic cable networks, over a hundred in all, are controlled by seven corporations: Fox Corporation, The Walt Disney Company (which includes the ABC, ESPN, FX and Disney brands), National Amusements (which owns Paramount Global), Comcast (which owns NBCUniversal), Warner Bros. Discovery, E. W. Scripps Company, Cablevision (now known as Altice USA), or some combination thereof.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: There may also be some large-scale owners in an industry that are not the causes of monopoly or oligopoly. iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel Communications), especially since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, acquired many radio stations across the United States, and came to own more than 1,200 stations. However, the radio broadcasting industry in the United States and elsewhere can be regarded as oligopolistic regardless of the existence of such a player. Because radio stations are local in reach, each licensing a specific part of spectrum from the FCC in a specific local area, any local market is served by a limited number of stations. In most countries, this system of licensing makes many markets local oligopolies. The similar market structure exists for television broadcasting, cable systems and newspaper industries, all of which are characterized by the existence of large-scale owners. Concentration of ownership is often found in these industries.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: In a 2020 article, Herzog and Scerbinina argued that CNN's coverage in 2017 of a potential merger between its parent company Time Warner and AT&T was "self-centered, self-promoting, and self-legitimizing."


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: About 70% of Venezuelan TV and radio stations are privately owned, while only about 5% or less of these stations are currently state-owned. The remaining stations are mostly community owned. VTV was the only state TV channel in Venezuela only about a decade ago. For the last decade, through the present day, the Venezuelan government operates and owns five more stations.


title: Concentration of media ownership

text: Commercial outlets completely rule over the radio sector. However, the Venezuelan government funds a good number of radio shows and TV stations. The primary newspapers of Venezuela are private companies that are frequently condemning of their government. These newspapers being produced in Venezuela do not have a large following.


title: Ted Stevens

text: Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. (November 18, 1923 – August 9, 2010) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009. He was the longest-serving Republican Senator in history at the time he left office, though his record was later surpassed in January 2017 by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. He was the president pro tempore of the United States Senate in the 108th and 109th Congresses from January 3, 2003, to January 3, 2007, and was the third U.S. Senator to hold the title of president pro tempore emeritus. He was previously Solicitor of the Department of the Interior from September 1960 to January 1961.


title: Ted Stevens

text: Stevens served for six decades in the American public sector, beginning with his service as a pilot in World WarII. In 1952, his law career took him to Fairbanks, Alaska, where he was appointed U.S. Attorney the following year by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1956, he returned to Washington, D. C., to work in the Eisenhower Interior Department, eventually rising to become Senior Counsel and Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, where he played an important role as an executive official in bringing about and lobbying for statehood for Alaska.