Almost everything we hear, read or watch in print, online or on our screens in Britain is being shaped by a tiny handful of global media billionaires.
It is often argued that they use this domination to protect their narrow financial interests rather than the public’s.
According to data from The Media Sovereignty Act Campaign, nine of the top fifteen online news sources in the UK are billionaire-owned.
Today, the Media Sovereignty Act Campaign has published “The UK Media Billionaire List 2026.”
Of the fifteen media billionaires listed, all but one are based abroad. Just 3 non-dom media billionaires own 82% of the UK newspaper market.
Caspar Hughes, Co-director of the Media Sovereignty Act Campaign said: “It is time to end UK media billionairism for good. We need to take back control of our media from the 0.0001% and spread media ownership across British society.”
Donnachadh McCarthy, Co-director of the Media Sovereignty Act Campaign added: “We cannot have a free and fair democracy if media ownership is captured by a tiny foreign billionaire elite and their narrow vested interests.
“It is time for Parliament to end the media billionairist domination of our democracy and urgently pass the Media Sovereignty Act.”
The following is the MSAC’s 2026 list of media billionaires dominating UK democracy and culture.
1. Murdoch
Billionaire: Rupert Murdoch
Nationality: US resident, previously Australian.
UK Holding Company: News UK
Newspapers: The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times – 33% of UK newspapers.
Monthly Online Audience: The Sun, 21 million.
Other Media: Talk TV, Talk Radio and Times Radio.
Publishing Company: Harper Collins, controls 9% of the UK book market.
News Broadcasting, a division of News UK, also holds a major share of the UK digital radio market.
2. Harmsworth
Billionaire: Jonathan Harmsworth
Nationality: French non-domiciled, a resident of Monaco.
UK Holding Company: Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT)
Newspapers: The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, The I and Metro – 43% of UK newspapers.
Monthly Online Audience: The Mail, 21 million.
Monthly Online Audience: The Metro, 15 million
DMG Media, a subsidiary of DMGT, posts more than 100 videos to social media platforms every day.
3. Springer
Billionaire: Friede Springer
Nationality: German
UK Holding Company: The Telegraph Media Group, a subsidiary of Axel Springer SE.
Newspapers: The Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph – 6% of UK newspapers.
Monthly Online Audience: 16 million.
Other Media: Politico, an online political news website.
4. Marshall
Billionaire: Paul Marshall
Nationality:British
UK Holding Company: All Perspectives Ltd and Paul Marshall
Television: GB News
Monthly Audience: 3.8 million
Other Media: The Spectator, UnHerd, an online political news website.
5. Lebedev
Billionaire: Yevgeny Lebedev
Nationality: Russian – British
UK Holding Company: Independent Digital News & Media Ltd
Newspapers: The Independent
Monthly Audience: 18 million.
Other Media: Indy100.
6. Ellison
Billionaires: David Ellison and Larry Ellison
Nationality: American
UK Holding Company: Paramount Skydance Corporation
Television: Channel 5.
Daily Audience: 1.02 million
Other Media: Paramount Pictures, CBS (the BBC’s US partner).
Larry Ellison is the sixth-richest man on Earth.
7. Roberts
Billionaire: Brian Roberts
Nationality: American
UK Holding Company: Sky Group, a subsidiary of Comcast.
Television / Streaming: Sky, Now UK.
Monthly Viewing Audience: Sky 33.3 million
Monthly Online Audience: Sky News 37 million.
Sky is Europe’s largest broadcasting corporation.
8. Musk
Trillionaire: Elon Musk
Nationality: American, formerly South African.
Social Media: X.
Monthly Users: 21 million
Musk backs far-right racist Restore Party in the UK.
9. Zuckerberg
Billionaire: Mark Zuckerberg
Nationality: American.
UK Holding Company: Meta Platforms.
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads.
Monthly Users: 47 million
10. Bezos
Billionaire: Jeff Bezos
Nationality: American.
Streaming Service: Amazon Prime.
Monthly Audience: 19 million.
Other Media: Billionaire Jeff Bezos (American) owns Amazon Prime Video streaming service, which serves 45% of UK households.
11. Reed Hastings
Billionaire: Reed Hastings
Nationality: American.
Streaming Service: Netflix
Monthly Audience: 12 million
Netflix also controls many of the films shown in the UK through its Hollywood Studios.
12. Pichai
Billionaire: Sundar Pichai
Nationality: American
Online: Google and YouTube
Monthly Audience: YouTube 37.5 million
Google controls 93% of the UK search engine market.
13. Yiming
Billionaire: Zhang Yiming
Nationality: Chinese
Social Media: TikTok
Monthly Audience: 30 million.
14. Mohn
Billionaire: Mohn family.
Nationality: German
UK Holding Company: Bertelsmann
Publishing: Penguin Random House
The 2nd largest book publisher in the UK.
15. Bauer
Billionaire: Yvonne Bauer
Nationality: German.
UK Holding Company: Bauer Media
Commercial Radio: Absolute, Hits Radio, Jazz FM, Kerrang!, KISS, Magic, Planet Rock, Heat Radio.
Monthly Audience: 97.5 million
Other Media: UK’s largest magazine publisher, including TV Choice and Take a Break, UK’s most popular weekly women’s magazine.
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