Traditional media owners start to dominate online

A study into how the profile of the web’s most-visited sites have changed since 2004 highlights the increasing concentration of ‘Media’ and ‘Information & Reference’ brands in the Top 50 sites.

In January 2004, nine media companies featured in the UK’s 50 most-popular brands online. This has risen to almost a third (16) last month, thanks to more time being spent on sites for TV broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, and national newspapers owned by Associated, Guardian News & Media, News International and the Telegraph Media Group. The BBC commandeers two entries, one for its general news and TV business and one for its commercial BBC Worldwide operation. Meanwhile, there are also strong showings for Reed Business Information and Hachette Filipacchi UK, the magazine owner of Sugar (online) Red, Psychologies and Elle currently being sold to US giant Hearst. It appears that as the web matures, the content specialists of the offline world are starting to shine online too. It follows increased investment by media companies in time and resources to their digital operations. James Smythe, general manager at UKOM, said: "Over the last seven years, we have seen media owners significantly rise in our Top 50 rankings. Clearly they own the very best content and people are responding to that. With hindsight, I'm sure a few media owners probably wish they had charged for their content from the beginning."