ESSAY #2 - The Walt Disney Company Conglomerate
The Walt Disney Company is indisputably one of the largest and most powerful media corporations in the world. Owning film studios and the ESPN and ABC networks has helped to establish the company as the second largest media entertainment conglomerate in world. AOL Time Warner is the largest (BBC News, 2001). In addition to its network holdings, Disney also has its hands in internet, radio, cellular phones, and of course, has theme parks planted around globe (Sacramento Business Journal, 2007). In 2002, Disney was listed amongst the world?s top 10 most valuable brands alongside Microsoft, McDonald?s, and Coca-Cola (Khermouch, 2002, p.74). What does this mean for the global media market?
Disney is well on its way to becoming an oligopoly. Adhering to the facets of a global oligopoly as defined by McChesney, Disney is quickly stretching its shadow farther and farther across the globe, targeting countries and regions with the highest potential for profit (McChesney, 2001). In fact, Disney earns sixty percent of its overseas profits from Europe, thirty-five percent from Asia, and only five percent from lesser developed Latin America (BBC News, 2001). However, Disney is not deterred by economic struggles plaguing countries where it believes it may establish a stronghold. In 2001, Disney began planning to open a Hong Kong Disney theme park, despite the country?s economic depression (BBC News, 2001).
With firmly established markets in four continents, is there any place Disney can?t, or won?t go? At least for now, Africa may be the answer to that question. With so much poverty, war, famine, and disease, Disneyland Somalia isn?t likely to be constructed within our life times. Countries made up of cultures determined to push away western cultural products are not likely to be profitable for the Walt Disney Company. Radio Disney isn?t broadcast in Iran. ABC Family isn?t aired in Madagascar. However, if these countries weren?t plagued with terrorism, political wars and AIDS pandemics, who?s to say Mickey Mouse wouldn?t be seen on Radio Disney billboards in Fallujah? In another eighty-five years, if Disney continues to flourish globally as it is today, there is little doubt that The Walt Disney Company will have media holdings in every developed country in the world.
BBC NEWS. (2001, June 8). Disney in global push. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1379079.stm
Khermouch, G. (2002, August 5). The best global brands. Business Week, 74.
Mc Chesney, R. (2001, March). Global Media, Neoliberalism, and Imperialism. Monthly Review.
Sacramento Business Journal. (2007, May). The Walt Disney Company overview. Retrieved May 30, 2007.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/gen/The_Walt_Disney_Co_3C4F8CC2C04848A4A9913D1DD00B6969.html
Posted at
12:04PM Jun 01, 2007
by COX, KATIE in General |
Friday Jun 01, 2007
David has provided some interesting facts within this essay. The way that Walt Disney is expanding around the globe should be put under the spotlight and examined thoroughly. If Walt Disney has grown to such a power global media giant, there is a lot to be learned from it. Other media companies most likely envy the success of Walt Disney, and are probably employing the same tactics currently in order to better help them expand and get a piece of the global media market pie. On the other hand communication experts in the field of media and globalization can study the methods of Walt Disney in order to better understand where our media industry is headed. I really like the far-fetched proposal made about Walt Disney expanding to harsher markets like African and Iraq, but I can?t help but to ponder the notion that Walt Disney in African or Iraq is not all that far fetched. The way that information, technology, money, and ideas flow in contemporary society, nothing appears to be impossible.
Posted by J Preston on June 01, 2007 at 12:20 PM EDT #
i like your topic a lot. having studied the disney 'culture' in other Com classes, it's very interesting to see their expansion across the globe. disney has always been categorized as somewhat of a metaphor for american imperialism. something you could focus on would be the american imperialistic views of the company and how that is affecting their expansion, possibly in the technological aspect. maybe in the views they express in the movies they're exporting to other countries or the theme parks in different parts of the world where the cultures are so different. mchesney's article on global media/imperialism raises some good points on all of this.
Posted by alicia thomas on June 01, 2007 at 12:33 PM EDT #