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mechanism and other exchanges.
They then edit together their own story 'packages' consisting of video and
'natural' sound (that is, no added narration), and transmit them via satellite
to clients in any of several daily 'feeds', and via the EBU. Some audio commentary
and electronic text (or 'scripts') are also provided to clients, providing
information to accompany the visuals, a'nd occasionally finished
stories that a broadcaster can put right on the air are offered (for the broadcaster
unwilling to invest in actual journalism). Many new commercial
stations around the world have been designed from the outset to rely
heavily on the agencies in this way (see, for example, Helland, 1995).
Clients pay the agencies from tens of thousands to several million dollars
yearly, depending upon a variety of factors including the size of the station's
audience, the number and type of newsfeeds received, and the amount of
stories the station contributes to the agency (Mite, 1992). Currently, among
the British and US networks (the most wealthy and influential of news
Supplied by The British Library - "The world's knowledge"
80 The Globalizatio~o~f News
agency clients) the affiliations are as follows: the most popular US newscast
(for most of the last decade), that of Disney's American Broadcasting
Company (ABC), receives iVTN footage as majority owner of \VTN.* NBC
subscribes to Reuters. CBS has switched from WTN to Reuters and back to
IVTN (and has for some time syndicated a small amount of their video internationallyas CBS International). CBS and NBC also subscribe to APTV.3
Time-Warner's CNN produces much of its own international material,
but also subscribes to all three agencies. In the UK, the BBC's long-standingalliance with Reuters has metamorphosed to dependence on \VTN and
APTV. ITN has shifted from long-time supplier \VTN (of which ITN owns
a piece) to Reuters (which owns a piece of ITN), and may now shift back.
News Corporation's Sky and Fox news networks depend entirely on
Reuters for international coverage. Strict copyright rules are observed toensure that no station broadcasts and no agency distributes news video
which they have not either paid for or produced themselves. As Waite
(1992) observes, at the heart of the international television news business isthe goal of gaining the greatest possible exclusivity of news images for thelowest possible cost.
Barring major shifts in ownership or corporate policy, these agencies are
likely to remain the dominant providers of international television news,
especially from the developing world (where broadcasters rarely go; see, for
example, Gonzenbach et al., 1991; \Vallis and Baran, 1990), for at least the
next several years." Tunstall (1992) observed that Visnews (the predecessor
of Reuters Television) claimed over 1.5 billion people saw its pictures
around the world every day, a figure presumably based on the approximate
audience of each of its subscriber^.^ He argued (1992: 89), 'TV foreign news
professionals would probably agree that Visnews has some claim to being
the most widely consumed, if least recognized, world brand'. That claim
might now rightfully belong to IVTN, since Reuters was a recognized name
even before it took over Visnews, and it now aggressively markets its name
to television audiences wherever possible.
Concentration of television news