[单项选择]The most noticeable trend among today’s media companies is vertical integration -- an attempt to control several related aspects of the media business at once, each part helping the other. Besides publishing magazines and books, Time Warner, for example, owns Home Box Office (HBO), Warner movie studios, various cable TV systems throughout the United States and CNN as well. The Japanese company Matsushita owns MCA Records and Universal Studios and manufactures broadcast production equipment.
To describe the financial status of today’s media is also to talk about acquisitions. The media are buying and selling each other in unprecedented numbers and forming media groups to position themselves in the marketplace to maintain and increase their profits. In 1986, the first time a broadcast network had been sold, two networks were sold that year -- ABC and NBC.
Media acquisitions have skyrocketed since 1980 for two reasons. The first is that most big corporations today are publi
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. it means that more and more people will hold onto only a few stations