Big media still has plenty of muscle

There may be 500 channels and almost $80 billion in advertising and subscriber revenue in the television industry, but most of that content and cash is controlled by a handful of companies.

In a new report on the US media industry, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger notes that a handful of media giants control the advertising and subscription pies. According to Juenger, fees that pay-TV distributors pay for content is now about $40 billion while advertising is an additional $37 billion. Walt Disney -- parent of ESPN, ABC Family, Disney Channel and the ABC broadcast network -- accounts for more than 20% of the distribution fee figure. Time Warner, whose holdings include HBO, TNT, TBS and CNN, is the second-biggest media company in terms of subscriber fees. Its networks get about 18% of that $40 billion.