Who Owns What? – Media and Entertainment Edition

Every successful company seems to be owned or bought by some other larger company to form the major corporations we all know and (sometimes) love. However, the question remains, which mega-conglomerate owns your favorite brands and franchises? Let us find out!

Disclaimer: This breakdown will be only including the parts of the organization that are entirely or at least majority-owned by that conglomerate as of writing this article (2021). No third-party organizations or joint ventures, sorry. 

Comcast can be broken down into three main sections: Xfinity, Sky Group, and NBCUniversal. 

• Xfinity deals mostly in cable, internet, and phone services including all the company’s in-house ventures such as Comcast Business, Xfinity Flex, Comcast Technology Solutions, etc. They have also started dabbling in some smart-home and home-security initiatives as well. Pretty basic stuff.

• Sky Group is very similar to Xfinity except it is an international company with subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, and many more.

• NBCUniversal is where we start to see some of, or more entertaining franchises come into play and can be broken down into NBC and Universal Pictures. 

  • NBC, or National Broadcasting Company, focuses mostly on network television channels. These channels are mostly news and sports channels like NBC and The Weather Channel, or entertainment channels like E! network, Bravo, and the Syfy channel. 

  • Universal Pictures, also known as simply Universal, focuses mainly on motion picture films and animation. Their animation studios like Illumination of Despicable Me fame and DreamWorks which is known for many iconic films such as Shrek, Madagascar, and How to Train Your Dragon just to name a few. 

We all know that when it comes to the entertainment industry Disney dominates. Disney Channel, Disney theme parks, streaming, gaming, the list goes on. For this breakdown, I will be focusing on the content of entertainment rather than Disney as a whole, so that we can find out which of our favorite shows and movies are owned by Disney.

• Disney originals were the start and foundation of the company. These originals include the live-action Disney Channel original shows and movies, the Disney princess properties, and Disney animation properties. 

• The acquired intellectual properties owned by Disney have become almost if not equally as iconic as the Disney original content has. 

  • The Pixar classics of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Up, WALL-E, Cars, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and many more are all part of the Disney family. 

  • The Marvel cinematic universe including Thor, Iron Man, X-Men among others have been the staple of cinema and entertainment for years thanks to Disney’s involvement. Who does not love a good superhero movie?

  • Lucasfilm is best known for the expansive Star Wars universe, but it also is responsible for cult-classic franchises like The Land Before Time and Indiana Jones.  

• Beyond Disney Channel and Disney XD, Disney has other general television content including ABC Entertainment, FX Networks, National Geographic Partners, A&E Networks, ESPN, and 20th Century Studios.  

AT&T is the parent company of Warner Media, but similarly to Xfinity, they focus on the internet, cable, and other related services. For the sake of simplicity, we will be breaking down the Warner Media subsidiary of AT&T. 

• Warner Media has a large focus on young adults and children’s entertainment that can be broken down into the following:

  • Warner Brothers properties are the properties that are either Warner Brothers’ originals or are film adaptations of other intellectual properties. Some examples include the Animaniacs, Harry Potter, The Hobbit, and It to name a few. 

  • DC, Detective Comics, properties such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, Watchmen, and all The CW’s DC superhero universe. 

  • Cartoon Network and Adult Swim are some of Warner Media’s most popular television properties. 

    • Cartoon Network is known for its beloved animated series. Some are more modern series like Adventure Time and Steven Universe from the Cartoon Network channel while others are Hannah Barbara classics like Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones played on Boomerang. Other properties included Loony Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Powerpuff Girls, Codename: Kids Next Door, and many more. 

    • Adult Swim, in contrast, is known for its adult and young adult demographic. Some of the Adult Swim originals are iconic series like Family Guy, American Dad!, and more recently Rick and Morty. However, Adult Swim also included Toonami, a television block that played Japanese anime (not owned by Warner Media), and a few, more intense American cartoons like Samurai Jack (which are owned by Warner Media). 

• The streaming services and networks owned by Warner Media are incredibly varied and cover a wide range of content. The most notable of these services are HBO (the network channel), HBOMax (the streaming service), Cinemax, TBS, TNT, TruTV, CNN, and Rooster Teeth. 

• Warner Media also has a few evenly distributed ventures. The CW channel is split 50-50 with ViacomCBS and Fandango Media is split between Warner Media and NBCUniversal. 

Hopefully, this breakdown helped you find out which conglomerate your favorite franchises are owned by. There are many more corporations out there that were not mentioned. If you would be interested in an expanded list, let us know on our Instagram at hclouisianatech. 

Thanks for reading!