This article is about concentration in media ownership in Russia.

Keywords : media, ownership, concentration

Эта статья о концентрации собственности на СМИ в России.

Ключевые слова: СМИ, собственность, концентрация

Overview

Ownership concentration is the phenomenon by which few people or corporations owns majority of businesses in a field. This article is about ownership concentration in the media sphere in Russia. What can explain it and what are its peculiarities?

Introduction

Concentration in media ownership is defined as the following: majority of existing media in the Russian market are owned by only few organizations. These medias owned by these few people are of all types: they are print media, audiovisual media, telecommunication media and most recent ones, internet media. Three major ownership models in Russian media ownership can be identified: both private and state, individually or simultaneously in the same media company [1]. The private owners of these media are not always from the media industry.

This trend is shared by countries all over the world. Differences exist of course in ownership concentration level and have different explanations.

Russian Media Landscape

The present media environment starts from the end of the USSR in 1991 [2] where big changing was introduced in the Russian society. For the media sphere, this period saw a lot of important reforms in ownership and control [3]. Before this period, media were owned only by the Communist Party and Soviet state. Censorship and control were prevalent. But in 1992, a new law, the Mass Media Law, established in 1991 become effective [4] until nowadays. It has been set to ban censorship and state only ownership. For example, the Article 7 says that the founders or the cofounders of media company can be citizens, organizations or state organs.

Nowadays, the Russian media landscape is marked by four big major features [5]:

1. The dominance of television upon other media outlets [6]. Television has the larger audience (about 72 % in 2014) according to FOM — Public Opinion Foundation. It is also most from television that Russian people can information about their country and the rest of the world (WCIOM TV).
2. Advertising is the leading business model for almost the whole media industry.
3. Strong concentration in most effective media industry segments and increase in state capital
4. According to Makeenko and Vyrkovsky (2013) [7], majority of largest media are centralized (from Moscow), regional ones have smaller audience and revenue.

Characteristics of the Ownership Concentration

Table 1 shows major media conglomerate in Russia and which media they own [8].

Table 1

Conclusion

Concentration is strong in the Russian media landscape as in many others part of the world. Most media are owned by the Russian Government directly or indirectly and by worthy people. The largest media companies are most located in Moscow rather than in other regions.

References:

1. Vartanova, Elena, Eli Noam, and Paul Mutter, 'Media Ownership and Concentration in Russia', Who Owns the World's Media? Media Concentration and Ownership around the World (New York, 2016; online edn, Oxford Academic, 21 Jan. 2016), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199987238.003.0011, accessed 5 Dec. 2022.
2. Russia. Retrieved from https://medialandscapes.org/country/russia
3. Price, M., & Krug, P. (1996). Ownership in Russia. In V. MacLeod (Ed.), Media ownership and control in the age of convergence (pp. 171). London: International Institute of Communications. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/66
4. Zakon O sredstvakh massovoi informatsii [Law on Mass Information Media], Vedomosti s’ezda narodnykh deputatov rossiiskoi federatsii I verkhovnogo soveta rossiiskoi federatsii, No.7, Item 300. (1992) (enacted 27 December 1991, effective 8 February 1992)
5. Vartanova, E L et al (2016). The Russian Media Industry in Ten Years: Industrial Forecasts. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 11(1), 65–84, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.221
6. Vartanova, E., & Smirnov, S. (2010). Mapping Contemporary Trends in Russian Media Industry. In Rosenholm, A., Nordenstreng, K., & Trubina, E. (Eds.), Russian Mass Media and Changing Values, Abingdon: Routledge.
7. Makeenko, M., & Vyrkovsky, A. (2013). Economic effects of convergence in Russian daily press, World of Media. Yearbook of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, Moscow, Faculty of Journalism.
8. A Guide to Media and Journalism in Russia. Retrieved from https://geohistory.today/media-journalism-russia/