AT&T Inc. (with "AT&T" being an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company) is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas.[5] It is the world's fourth-largest telecommunications company by revenue and the largest wireless carrier in the United States.[6] As of 2023, AT&T was ranked 13th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations, with revenues of $120.7 billion.[7]
During most of the 20th century, AT&T had a monopoly on phone service in the United States. The company began its history as the American District Telegraph Company, formed in St. Louis in 1878.[8] After expanding services to Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas through a series of mergers, it became Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1920, which was then a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph Company.[9] The latter was a successor of the original Bell Telephone Company founded by Alexander Graham Bell in 1877.[10][11] The American Bell Telephone Company formed the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) subsidiary in 1885.[12] In 1899, AT&T became the parent company after the American Bell Telephone Company sold its assets to its subsidiary.[13] The company was rebranded as AT&T Corp. in 1994.[14] The 1982 United States v. AT&T antitrust lawsuit resulted in the divestiture of AT&T's ("Ma Bell") local operating subsidiaries[15] which were grouped into seven[16] Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), commonly referred to as "Baby Bells", resulting in seven independent companies,[16] including Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC).[17] The latter changed its name to SBC Communications Inc. in 1995.[18]
In 2005, SBC purchased its former parent AT&T Corp. and took on the latter's branding, history, and stock trading symbol, as well as a version of its iconic logo. The merged entity, naming itself AT&T Inc., launched on December 30, 2005.[19] The newly merged and renamed AT&T Inc. acquired BellSouth Corporation in 2006, the last independent Baby Bell company, making BellSouth and SBC (AT&T Inc.)'s formerly joint venture Cingular Wireless (which had itself acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004) a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. Cingular was then rebranded as AT&T Mobility. AT&T Inc. also acquired Time Warner in 2016,[20][21] with the proposed merger confirmed on June 12, 2018[22] and the aim of making AT&T Inc. the largest and controlling shareholder of Time Warner, which it then rebranded as WarnerMedia in 2018. The company later withdrew its equity stake in WarnerMedia in 2022 and merged it with Discovery, Inc. to create Warner Bros. Discovery, divesting itself of its media arm.
The current AT&T reconstitutes most of the former Bell System, and includes four of the seven "Baby Bells" along with the original AT&T Corp., including the long-distance division.[23]
Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Science Channel, and TLC. In 2018, the company acquired Scripps Networks Interactive, adding networks such as Food Network, HGTV, and Travel Channel to its portfolio. Since the purchase, Discovery described itself as serving members of "passionate" audiences, and also placed a focus on streaming services built around its properties.
Discovery owned or had interests in local versions of its channel brands in international markets, in addition to its other major regional operations such as Eurosport (a pan-European group of sports channels, most prominently the rightsholder of the Olympic Games throughout most of Europe), GolfTV (an international golf-focused streaming service, which is the international digital rightsholder of the PGA Tour), Discovery Communications Nordic (which operates general-interest channels in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland), TVN Group in Poland, and a portfolio of various free-to-air channels in Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
In May 2021, AT&T announced its proposal to merge its media subsidiary WarnerMedia with Discovery, Inc. The transaction was approved by the European Commission in December 2021 and was completed on April 8, 2022, forming Warner Bros. Discovery.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedia's spin-off by AT&T and merger with Discovery, Inc. on April 8, 2022.
The company's properties are divided into nine business units, consisting of the flagship Warner Bros. film and television studios, comic book publisher DC Comics, Home Box Office, Inc. (including HBO, Cinemax and Magnolia Network), U.S. Networks Group (including the majority of the advertisement-supported cable channels of its predecessors, namely Discovery, Scripps Networks, Turner Broadcasting, and Warner), CNN Worldwide (which includes CNN and CNN International), TNT Sports (including Motor Trend Group, TNT Sports UK, and Eurosport), Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment (which includes the Discovery+ and Max streaming services, as well as the video game publisher Warner Bros. Games), and International Networks. It also holds a minority stake in The CW and a majority stake in Television Food Network, G.P. (comprising Food Network and Cooking Channel), all of which exist alongside Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global also owning a minority stake in The CW.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros.,[a] or abbreviated as WB, or WBEI) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Founded in 1923 by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner, the company established itself as a leader in the American film industry before diversifying into animation, television, and video games, and is one of the "Big Five" major American film studios, as well as a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA).
The company is known for its film studio division, the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, which includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Castle Rock Entertainment, DC Studios, and the Warner Bros. Television Group. Bugs Bunny, a character created for the Looney Tunes series, is the company's official mascot.
Members of the Murdoch family are prominent international media magnates and media tycoons with roots in Australia and the United Kingdom, along with their media assets in the United States.[1] Some members have also been prominent in the arts, clergy, and military.
Five generations of the family are descended from two Scottish immigrants to Australia: the Reverend James Murdoch (1818–1884), a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and his wife Helen, née Garden (1826–1905).[2] Both were from the Pitsligo area of Aberdeenshire and migrated to the Colony of Victoria in 1884.[2]
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is known for being one of the founders and the owner of formerly the world's largest media company News Corporation, a company that was spun-off in mid 2013 splitting its entertainment assets to 21st Century Fox and its media publishing assets to form the new News Corp.[3][4][5] Currently the Murdochs still have the controlling interest in the remains of the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company that was spun-off to Fox Corporation, and still remain as top executives of News Corp.[6]
Fox Corporation (stylized in all-caps as FOX Corporation[7]) is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. Incorporated in Delaware, it was formed on March 20, 2019, as a result of the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company, which was closed on March 20, 2019.[8][9][10][11] The company is controlled by the Murdoch family via a family trust with 39.6% ownership share, and by Rupert Murdoch himself to the effect of almost 40%.[12][13]
Rupert Murdoch is chair, while his son Lachlan Murdoch is executive chair and CEO. Fox Corp. deals primarily in the television broadcast, news, and sports broadcasting industries. Its assets include the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations, Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, Tubi, and others. Its sister company under Murdoch's control, News Corp, holds his newspaper interests and other media assets.
On September 21, 2023, Rupert Murdoch announced that he was stepping down as the chairman of Fox Corporation, effective November 2023.[14]
ESPN (an abbreviation of its original name, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network[2]) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by The Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Communications (20%) through the joint venture ESPN Inc. The company was founded in 1979 by Bill Rasmussen, Scott Rasmussen and Ed Eagan.[2]
ESPN broadcasts primarily from studio facilities located in Bristol, Connecticut. The network also operates offices and auxiliary studios in Miami, New York City, Las Vegas, Seattle, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. James Pitaro currently serves as chairman of ESPN, a position he has held since March 5, 2018, following the resignation of John Skipper on December 18, 2017.[3]
Headquarters in Bristol, ConnecticutAs of November 2021, ESPN reached approximately 76 million television households in the United States—a drop of 24% from nearly a decade prior.[4] As of June 2023, the channel's reach had been reduced to 72.5 million homes.[5] In addition to the flagship channel and its seven related channels in the United States, ESPN broadcasts in more than 200 countries.[6] It operates regional channels in Africa, Australia, Latin America and the Netherlands. In Canada, it owns a 20% interest in The Sports Network (TSN) and its five sister networks. Despite the network's success, criticism of ESPN includes accusations of biased coverage,[7] conflict of interest, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts.
