Which term describes firms that operate across multiple cultural industries to spread risk and control production?

• A. Horizontal integration
• B. Diversification
• C. Vertical integration
• D. Conglomeration

Answer: (C)

This question tests your understanding of corporate strategies that spread risk by owning across different areas of the media landscape. When a company operates in several cultural industries—such as film, television, publishing, and music—it’s creating a conglomerate. The idea is that by having diverse interests, the overall business is less vulnerable if one sector struggles, while it can coordinate production and leverage resources across sectors.

Vertical integration, by contrast, keeps control within a single industry but across different stages of the same production line (like production, distribution, and exhibition). It strengthens control of the workflow but doesn’t involve crossing into multiple cultural industries, so it doesn’t describe spreading risk across different sectors.