Big five

From Free net encyclopedia

Big five can have the following meanings:

In international diplomacy, it refers to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the People's Republic of China. It was originally used after World War II, in which Russia was the Soviet Union, and instead of the People's Republic of China, it was the Republic of China in the Chinese seat.

Corporations

• The Big Five auditors, the five largest international public accountancy firms which became the Big Four auditors after the collapse of Arthur Andersen in the Enron scandal.
• Big Five previously referred to the five major media giants which dominated the global music market: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, Warner Music Group and BMG. Since the merger of Sony and BMG, these are now the Big Four record labels.
• The Big Five can also refer to the five currently largest television networks in the USA: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox for terrestrial television, and CNN on cable.
• Beginning in 2006, Big Five can also refer to what will be the 5 largest broadcast TV networks in America: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and The CW (formed from merger of UPN and The WB).
• The Big Five movie studios during Hollywood's golden age were Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers.
• Big Five can also refer to the five biggest commercial banks in Canada: Royal Bank of Canada, CIBC, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia. See also Big Five banks and Big Six banks.
• In the United Kingdom, the Big Five ITV companies in the period 1968 to 1992 were Thames Television, London Weekend Television, ATV (later Central Television), Granada Television and Yorkshire Television.
• Big 5 Sporting Goods, a publicly traded (NASDAQ) sporting goods company
• Big Five (Hawaii), an oligarchy of five corporations that ruled over Hawaii
• The Big Five commercial banks of the United Kingdom, HSBC Bank UK, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB.

Others

• Big5, a character encoding method of unknown origin for Traditional Chinese characters
• Big Five (California), an informal institution of California's government
• The Philadelphia Big 5, an association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, formed by the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Saint Joseph's University, Villanova University, and La Salle University.
• Big Five is a colloquial term for the members of the defacto Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China pre-1956.
• Big Five Game, a term coined by the hunting fraternity in Africa to refer to the five most dangerous animals to hunt i.e. Rhinoceros, Leopard, Cape Buffalo, Elephant and Lion.
• The Big Five personality constructs (Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism)
• Big Five (orchestras), the traditional top five orchestras in America.
• The Big Five, the five largest extinction events.
• The five crime families of Cosa Nostra in New York-Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Colombo and Luchese.
• Big Five is a misnomer for the Mighty Handful, 19th century Russian composers.
• The Big Five can also mean the five employees in Kaiba Corp who were kicked out after Duelist Kingdom in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime series. See also the Virtual Realm and Legendary Heroes.
• The Big Five were a progressive Reggae/Funk band from Sydney formed in 1982. The name derives from a track on the album of the same name by Prince Buster released in 1972.

See also

• Big Two
• Little Three
• Big Three
• Big Four
• Big Six

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