The most noticeable trend among today's media companies is vertical integration

The most noticeable trend among today's media companies isvertical integration (垂直统一管理) , an attempt(尝试) to control several related aspects(方面) of the media business at once, each part helping the other.Besides publishing magazines and books, Time Warner, for example, owns Home BoxOffice ( HBO), Warner movie studios (摄影棚), various cable TVsystems throughout the USA, and CNN as well. The Japanese company MatsushitaOwns MCA. Records and Universal Studios and manufactures broadcast productionequipment.

    To describe the financial status( 财务状态 ) of today’s media is also to talk about acquisitions(获得). The media are buying and selling each other in unprecedented(空前的) numbers and forming media groups to position themselves in themarket place to maintain and increase their profits(利润). In 1986, the first time a broadcast network had been sold, twonetworks were sold that year—ABC and NBC.

    Mediaacquisitions have skyrocketed(猛增) since 1980 for tworeasons. The first is that most big corporations today are publicly tradedcompanies, which means that their stock is traded on one of the nation’s stock exchanges(股票交易). This makes acquisitions relatively easy.

    A mediacompany that wants to buy a publicly owned company can buy that company's stockwhen the stock becomes available(有用的). The openavailabilities of stock in these companies means that anybody with enough moneycan invest in the American media Indus tries, which is exactly how RupertMurdoch joined the media business.

The second reason for the increase in media alliances(联合) is that beginning in 1980, the Federal CommunicationsCommission (FCC) gradually deregulated (解除管制) the broadcast media. Before 1980,for example, the FCC allowed one company to own only five TV stations, five AMradio stations, and five FM radio stations; companies also were required tohold onto a station for three years before the station could be sold. Thepost-1980 FCC eliminated the three-year rule and raised the number of broadcastholdings allowed for one owner. This trend (倾向；趋势) of media acquisitions is continuingthroughout the 1990s,as changing technology expands the market for mediaproducts.

1. Which ofthe following is true of the media?

A. They usedto sell and buy each other in great numbers.

B. They aretrading each other in greater numbers today.

C. They used to be controlled by twonetworks—ABC and NBC.

D. They havestopped the trend of acquisitions in the 1990s.

2. Accordingto the passage, what makes acquisitions easier?

A. Thechanging technology employed by the media.

B. Themedia's increasing profits in the marketplace.

C. The evertougher regulations of the FCC on the media since 1980.

D. Theavailabilities of the media's stocks on stock exchanges.

3. What is the FCC’s new policy regardingmedia alliances?

B. It doesn't allow companies to sell their stocks publicly

C. It permits one company to own more media businesses at the sametime.

D. It has eliminated all post 1980 companies.

4. The issue of media ownership is important because ____.

A. it affects the amount of money the stockholders will make

B. it decides whether we can have different aspects of the media

C. it concerns the channels through which to express opinions

D. itmeans that more and more people will hold onto only a few stations.

试题答案

答案：B;D;C;C