The following selection does not claim to present an exhaustive listing, but rather picks some of the company's most important assets. Due to the rapid developments in the world of media giants the list is also subject to changes.
Broadcasting
ABC TV Network with 223 affiliated TV stations covering the entire U.S.
ABC Radio Network, with 2,900 affiliated stations throughout the U.S.
Owner of 9 VHF TV stations
Owner of 11 AM and 10 FM stations
Cable TV Systems and Channels/Networks
80 % of ESPN cable TV channel and ESPN International
50 % of Lifetime cable TV channel
Internet/Interactive
Disney Interactive - entertainment and educational computer software and video games, plus development of content for on-line services.
Partnership with 3 phone companies to provide video programming and interactive services.
ABC Online
TV Production, Movies, Video, Music
Disney Television Production studios and Walt Disney Pictures movie studio
Buena Vista Television production company
Buena Vista Home Video
Miramax and Touchstone movie production companies
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution and Buena Vista International, distributors for Disney and Touchstone movies
Walt Disney Records, and Hollywood Records
Publishing
6 daily newspapers
About 40 weekly magazines, including: Discover, Women's Wear Daily, Los Angeles and Institutional Investor.
Chilton Publications
Guilford Publishing Co.
Hitchcock Publishing Co.
Theme Parks, Resorts, and Travel
Disneyland
Disney World and Disney World Resort
Part owner of Disneyland-Paris and Tokyo Disneyland
12 resort hotels
Disney Vacation Club
Cruise Lines
International TV, Film, and Broadcasting
50 % owner of Tele-München Fernseh GmbH & Co.
50 % owner of RTL Disney Fernseh GmbH & Co.
23 % owner of RTL 2 Fernseh GmbH & Co.
37,5 % owner of TM3 Fernseh GmbH & Co.
20-33 % stake in Eurosport network, Spanish Tesauro SA TV company, and Scandinavian Broadcasting System SA
20 % owner of TVA
Other
Over 500 Disney Stores, and licensing of Disney products
The Mighty Ducks professional hockey team
25 % ownership of California Angels major league baseball team
Business Connections with Other Media Companies
Joint ventures, equity interests, or major arrangements with
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COMSAT Communications Satellite Cooperation
Until this decade the U.S.-based Comsat, Intelsat and Inmarsat organizations, in fact, shared nearly all international satellite traffic. So it was easy for NSA to eavesdropping on all communications to and from the United states. Less than 60 miles from Sugar Grove COMSAT runs a station in Etam, West Virginia, where more than half of the commercial, international satellite communication entering and leaving the US each day pass by. COMSAT provides international communications solutions via the global, 19-satellite INTELSAT system and 4-satellite Inmarsat satellite systems .
Through the INTELSAT system, COMSAT provides telecommunications, broadcast and digital networking services between the U.S. and the rest of the world. These services are used by Internet service providers, multinational corporations, telecommunications carriers and U.S. and foreign governments to extend their networks globally.
Inmarsat satellites lie in geostationary orbit 22,223 miles (35,786 km) out in space. Each satellite covers up to one third of the Earth's surface and is strategically positioned above one of the four ocean regions.
Calls are beamed up to the satellite and back down to Earth, where special gateway land earth stations re-route them through the appropriate local or international telephone network. COMSAT operates Earth Stations in each part of the world to route calls efficiently within each ocean region. Earth Stations are located in Santa Paula, California; Southbury, Connecticut; Ankara, Turkey; and Kuantan, Malaysia.
Sugar Grove Naval Communications Facility, near Sugar Grove, WV, may intercept Pacific INTELSAT/COMSAT satellite communications traffic routed through the COMSAT ground station at Etam, WV.
NSG station in Winter Harbor, Maine serves as an excellent platform from which to intercept signals to and from COMSATs Andover station, 125 miles to the west.
On the Westcost, COMSATs northern groundstation is situated in Brewster, near to Yakima, so from the Yakima Research Station the Pacific INTELSAT communications traffic can be intercepted.
The other west-coast station is in Jamesburg, California, not so far away from the Army Security Agency intercept station at Two Rock Ranch.
The international communications network with its limited gateways will probably always be easier to monitor than the large domestic networks like in the US. But the use of microwave and domestic satellites is increasing, and the construction of land lines is decreasing.
Sources:
STOA Report by Duncan Campbell: Interception Capabilities 2000
James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1982,p222-228
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