Hollywood is officially in a consolidation era. For all of Hollywood’s history, there have been ebbs and flows in monopolies and big media mergers. Certainly, from the mid 80s to the 2020s, most of the big power players in media bought and sold rights to their IPs as if they were sports trading cards, eventually giving way to the current Streaming Era. Today, the Big Three (Comcast, Paramount, Disney) control most of the media, along with five medium-sized companies (Fox One, Netflix, Apple, Sony, and Amazon-MGM).
This time, the government is over trying to protect the fair market – instead, they’re trying to install an oligopoly controlled by their friends. Long gone are the days when the courts would protect the public, like when the Supreme Court killed the infamous Studio System. Their 1948 ruling prohibited studios from block booking (and owning!) movie theaters, creating a more even playing field. Sure, the Studio system, as it was known back then, doesn’t exist anymore, but we’ve just repackaged how monopolies work – now three companies own most of the available media outlets, channels, and streaming platforms.
For better or for worse, and despite the rise of social media, traditional media is still the main source of news for many, especially when it comes to local issues. In democratic societies, which we claim to be, people need timely, accurate, bias-free information to make thoughtful decisions. So yes, it’s a problem when media conglomerates acquire or get a little too comfortable with local TV stations, newspapers, film studios, and social media platforms like Twitter and Meta.
And then there’s Amazon. When the person who can see our online shopping history is the same person that can access our security feed at home, control what we read in one of the biggest newspapers in the United States, influence how we think with films produced under his studio, tell us what to wear (if the rumors of him acquiring Condé Nast/Vogue end up being true, anyway) and generally is Jeff Bezos, it’s a bigger issue than most realize.
Consolidation in Hollywood demands our attention. It’s not just an unfair commercial environment – it’s a threat to pluralism, an attack on diversity, and the perfect excuse for companies to churn out poor-quality content, because consumers have no other option.
While it may seem like independent studios and production companies have been consistently saving the day for the past decade or so, things are not always what they seem. The indie film landscape of today is not what it was in the past. Where independent film used to be a grassroots endeavor, most of our beloved, so-called independent studios and production companies exist thanks to billionaire money (and while rich people funding art is nothing new, given our current landscape, the billionaire-funding-stream should leave all of us with an uncomfortable feeling). Sure, we have the illusion of control and choice, but the content we consume is curated by the same group of people who have sucked the soul out of journalism, film, and TV in favor of another billion in their bank account.
The system is broken. While I don’t have a single clear solution, I know that the answer isn’t to try to fix what was rigged from the start. Hollywood was never a land of opportunity for all – just look at our communities’ underrepresentation through the ages, even as we were there at the very start of the film industry!
Things might seem bleak, but even now, we as consumers still have power. We can choose content outside of the oligopoly. We can push for our government – including the states’ attorneys general – to review consolidation in Hollywood and block the mergers that hurt consumers and workers. We are the People, as in “We the People,” and we must remember elected officials work for us, not the billionaires filling their pockets!
I’m not asking you to cut off Hollywood and traditional media. I know most of us won’t cancel our streaming subscriptions, stop going to the movies, or stop buying the latest edition of Vogue or the Washington Post. However, we can start diversifying what we watch and learning how to audit and be critical of who is sharing the content we consume and why.
Community-centered and created media is exactly where we should be focusing. We need independent film, TV, and journalism outlets that prioritize the public interest and can fearlessly confront the powerful. And it is up to us to find, create, and nurture these spaces. We, the People, can no longer allow corporate greed and political interests to bully their way into our screens (be it theater, TVs, computers, or cell phones).
Democracy requires a level playing field and our participation. Now, it’s up to us to make sure democracy and media are free and fair for all.
