[Commlist] New MRC Report: Who Owns the UK Media?

Media Reform Coalition <https://www.mediareform.org.uk/>


  New report: Who Owns the UK Media?

https://www.mediareform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MRC-Who-Owns-The-UK-Media-2023-V3.3.pdf

The Media Reform Coalition has just published a new edition (our fifth 
so far) of our flagship_'Who Owns the UK Media?' report 
<https://www.mediareform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MRC-Who-Owns-The-UK-Media-2023-V3.3.pdf>_, 
featuring updated findings for the period since our last report in 2021.

This new report 
<https://www.mediareform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MRC-Who-Owns-The-UK-Media-2023-V3.3.pdf> 
highlights the dangerous levels of concentrated ownership across the 
UK's national and local press, in TV and radio broadcasting, streaming 
services and online platforms.

*Just three companies - DMG Media (publishers of the Daily Mail, Metro 
and/i/), News UK (the Sun and The Times) and Reach (Daily Mirror, Daily 
Express, Daily Star) - dominate 90% of national newspaper 
circulation.*These same three companies account for more than 40% of the 
total audience reach of the UK’s top 50 online newsbrands, giving a 
handful of dominant publishers an unrivalled position for setting the 
news agenda across print, broadcast and online formats.

*71% of the UK's 1,189 local newspapers (including print and online-only 
titles) are owned by just six companies.*Newsquest and Reach, the two 
largest companies, each control a fifth of the local press market - more 
than the combined share of the smallest 173 local publishers combined. 
Local journalism is in peril, as decades of corporate cuts, closures and 
consolidations have left the sector more concentrated and less 
locally-embedded than ever. Using data from the_Local News Map project 
by PINF <https://www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/map>_, the Public 
Interest News Foundation, we estimate that 11.5 million people (17.5% of 
the UK population) live in news 'deserts' or 'droughts'.

The report also demonstrates the dominant role that a handful of 'Big 
Tech' companies play in how people access and engage with content in the 
online media environment.*10 of the top 15 online platforms used to 
access news in the UK are owned by Meta, Alphabet and X Corp (owners of 
X/Twitter).*Meta (owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and Google 
command around four-fifths of all online advertising spend, giving these 
two tech giants unparalleled power over how online news is found and 
funded. Worse still, these platforms have not helped to diversify the 
supply of news online, but instead are entrenching the market reach and 
influence of the same newspapers and broadcasters that dominant the 
'offline' media market.

UK broadcasting faces similarly dangerous levels of corporate 
concentration, cost-cutting and loose commitments to regulatory 
standards.*Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ account for 80% of all UK 
video-on-demand subscriptions.*While Sky TV still dominates the pay-TV 
market with 9.1 million customers, twice as many households subscribe to 
at least one streaming service - with Netflix making up almost 
two-fifths of all combined subscriptions.

Although the BBC remains the dominant player across TV and radio, its 
founding public service mission has been further undermined by licence 
fee freezes, political interference and a questionable strategy to fund 
its digital future. The Corporation has made hugely damaging cuts to its 
highly valued local and regional radio output, and as public trust in 
the BBC falls precipitously the new opinion-led channels GB News and 
TalkTV regularly exploit Ofcom’s light-touch approach to regulating 
basic standards of accuracy, impartiality and public interest reporting.

A free, independent and plural media is essential to the functioning of 
a healthy democracy. However, these findings show that the UK media is 
dominated by a tiny handful of corporate media moguls and ‘Big Tech’ 
tycoons. Across our newspapers, TV channels, radio stations and online 
platforms, these companies hold a dangerous level of power to dictate 
our national conversation and influence the political agenda to favour 
their own interests.

We need urgent reform to end the decades of failed regulation and 
political inaction on concentrated media ownership. Ofcom, Parliament 
and government must act to break up the dominant media companies, 
regulate the tech companies that profit off of UK audiences, and create 
new ownership and funding models to support independent public interest 
journalism.

As an election year looms, which political party will be brave enough 
put genuine democratic media reform at the heart of its manifesto?

*Read: **Who Owns the UK Media? 2023 Report.* 
<https://www.mediareform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MRC-Who-Owns-The-UK-Media-2023-V3.3.pdf> Hope 
you find it useful for teaching, research and advocacy.


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