What is the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project and how did it come about?
The Global Media and Internet Concentration Project launched in 2021 as a large-scale academic collaboration designed to answer the question: are media and communications markets becoming more or less concentrated over time?
To tackle that, the project brings together researchers from close to 40 countries, all of them based in or originally from the markets they study.
Together, they track developments across telecommunications, broadcasting, publishing, streaming, search, social media and digital platforms. The goal is not just to study one sector, but to map the entire communications ecosystem and understand how power and ownership are shifting across it.
The team recognised that while debates about ‘big tech dominance’ or ‘media monopolies’ are common, hard evidence that is comparable across countries and consistent over time is scarce. Without shared methods and reliable datasets, public discussions tend to rely on assumptions or anecdotes.
Backed initially by a major grant from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the project set out to build that missing evidence base – a durable, independent and international dataset that could be used by scholars, policymakers, journalists and industry alike. Now that the infrastructure is in place, the ambition is to keep it running long term.
Why is it important?
Media and communications markets underpin democracy, culture and economic life. Decisions about competition, ownership limits, spectrum policy or platform regulation shape how information flows and who has influence. Yet those decisions are often made without robust, independent data. The project aims to fill that gap.
Rather than advocating for a particular policy position, the team sees itself as providing an independent , scholarly reference point. That independence is central. The researchers are not representing industry or campaigning groups; they share a common methodology and seek to be ‘fair brokers’ in contentious debates.
Reliable evidence helps policymakers avoid reacting to hype or alarmism. It also allows journalists and public interest groups to test claims made by companies or critics.
In particular we want to avoid the ‘permanent Cassandra mode’ in which things are viewed as always getting worse. Sometimes markets concentrate; sometimes they diversify. Understanding the nuance matters.
What trends are you seeing that are significant?
Several developments stand out.
First, there has been a clear resurgence of owner-controlled firms. For decades, large media and telecoms companies tended to be widely held institutional corporations. The share of top companies controlled by a single individual or family has risen from about 25 per cent in 2010 to roughly 36 per cent today, after having steadily declined in the previous century. Many of these are technology-driven firms, where founders retain strong voting control.
Second, government ownership has increased. In earlier years, few of the world’s top communications firms were state-controlled. Today, nearly 13 per cent of the top companies by revenue fall into that category. This partly reflects the growing prominence of Chinese telecoms giants such as China Mobile and China Telecom, but it also highlights wider strategic state involvement in communications infrastructure.
Third, institutional investors, such as large asset managers and funds, now hold substantial stakes in most leading global firms. That creates a different kind of concentration, with overlapping ownership patterns across competitors.
At the country level, there is consolidation at the top of the global system. In 2012, the United States and Japan accounted for about 42 per cent of the world’s media economy. Today, the top two are the US and China, together representing roughly 53 per cent. Meanwhile, several mid-sized markets, including South Korea, Canada, France, Brazil, India and Australia, have held or slightly strengthened their positions.
The picture, then, is not uniform decline or dominance, but shifting power structures that vary by ownership model, geography and sector.
Tell us about the new dashboard
The dashboard is the project’s public-facing interface and arguably its most practical tool.
Designed as an interactive, searchable platform, it allows users to explore ownership, revenues and concentration indicators across countries and industries. Rather than relying on static reports, users can dig into the data themselves – comparing markets, testing definitions or exploring trends over time.
The aim is transparency. Journalists, regulators, policymakers and researchers can all use the same reference point. If someone disagrees with how ownership or a market is defined, they can adjust the assumptions and see how results change.
There is nothing else quite like it in terms of geographic breadth and cross-sector coverage. While still expanding, it already provides one of the most comprehensive comparative datasets available on global communications markets. In essence, it turns years of academic work into a practical, accessible resource.
What are the next steps for the project?
With the database established and the dashboard live, the focus now is on widening engagement and deepening the research.
We are planning a series of webinars aimed at key audiences – academics, journalists, public interest groups, policymakers and industry participants – to demonstrate how to use the dashboard and to answer questions. These sessions will provide hands-on guidance and hopefully encourage broader adoption.
At the same time, our researchers are continuing to add countries, refine data quality and expand sector coverage. Some markets are still being validated before publication and the ambition is to steadily expand both scope and depth.
Our goal is longevity: to maintain and update the dataset year after year so that trends can be tracked over time. Industry concerns with concentration are constantly evolving. Sustained measurement is what makes the project valuable.
As we see it, the hard work of building the infrastructure is done. This is the payoff – providing publicly available and accessible evidence to inform smarter debates about the future of global media and communications.
The Global Media and Internet Concentration Project is introducing its new data dashboard in two forthcoming webinars for policymakers and regulators: March 25, 9.30pm EDT and March 26, 8.30am EDT. Please email Guy Hoskins at [email protected] to request Zoom registration details.
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