The money factories: the making of the new media barons.

It looks as though the world has moved from the "robber barons" of the turn of the century to the "media barons" of the turn of the millenium.

New technology has always created new wealth, and television isn't any different. What is different is that most of these new billionaires are not in the U.S. but scattered throughout the world. (Of course, many of the old American moguls were born outside the U.S.: John J. Astor, for example, immigrated to the U.S. from Germany, Andrew Carnegie came from Scotland, Pierre S. DuPont was born in France and Meyer Guggenheim came from Switzerland.)

Adjusting for inflation, the personal wealth of John D. Rockefeller or Cornelius Vanderbilt during their heydays was well above that of Bill Gates or Silvio Berlusconi today. In 1877, Vanderbilt's personal worth was $105 million, or $100 billion in today's money. When Rockefeller died in 1937, his fortune was estimated at $1 billion, equivalent to $200 billion today. Still, in order for Gates to squander his $18 billion fortune, he would have to spend more than $2 million a day for the next 40 years.

The media moguls in the accompanying Video Age International chart were selected for their personal worth, their media ownership and their involvement in their companies. There was a time during the 1960s and '70s in which million-dollar managers ruled the world, but after the leveraged buyouts of the 1980s and the consolidation of the '90s most of the owners are no longer content to be just honorary figureheads. Most of them are hands-on bosses who built their empires from scratch or helped to do so. Today, still at the helm, they are determined to steer their companies through the choppy waters of the cutthroat media business and sail straight into the 21st century.

A prime example is Rupert Murdoch. Determined to set up the archetypal global media company, Murdoch has used News Corp., in which he has a 31 percent share, to make an impact in the Americas, Europe and Australasia.

Mention the name Bertelsmann and everyone immediately thinks of Europe's biggest media group. Bertelmann's chairman of the board is Mark Wossner, but the man to keep an eye on is Wossner's boss, Reinhard Mohn. In addition to his 20.5 percent share in Bertelsmann (a German corporation operated through a foundation known for its philanthropy), Mohn actually controls 100 percent of the voting rights and is thus a formidable media king.

Equally formidable is the elusive Leo Kirch, whose Kirch Group is Germany's other media powerhouse. Leo Kirch has a strong hold on the company he built from scratch 40 years ago, and he is destined to get a strangehold on Europe's emerging digital TV market. Rumor also has it that Kirch has a financial ally in Switzerland-based billionaire Otto Beisheim, boss of Metro. Europe's biggest retail group.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's former prime minister and the head of the center-right Freedom Alliance party, is another European media giant. His conglomerate, Fininvest, owns 49 percent of TV and advertising group Mediaset.

Germany's Friede Springer, Hubert Burda and Heinz Bauer; Spain's Antonio Pizarro; Switzerland's Michael Ringier; and Sweden's Carl-Johan Bonnier may be more famous for their publishing empires, but they are silent partner's in several TV services. Burda's TV interests include RTL and RTL2. Bauer is also an RTL2 shareholder. Bonnier owns Svenski Filmindustri, a major TV and film company. Ringier has shares in German sports network DSF and in several Swiss TV and film companies. Springer is a partner in German commercial networks SAT1 and DSF. Additionally, Bauer and Axel Springer publish some of Europe's best-selling TV program guides.

The U.K., Europe's second biggest media market by advertising, is bereft of powerful media bosses in the European market. A potential candidate, however, is Michael Green, whose TV company has rapidly developed into one of the most ambitious in the U.K. Green currently owns two profitable commercial TV stations: Carlton TV and Central TV. He is also a shareholder in Meridian Broadcasting, GMTV and ITN.

Green's rival in the U.K. is Clive Hollick, whose MAI group owns or has shares in several U.K. and international commercial TV ventures, including the U.K. TV stations Anglia and Meridian Broadcasting. MAI also co-owns ITEL and Citadel a program sales company and a production company with HBO, the U.S. pay-TV giant. Other interests are Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television (another U.K. commercial TV station) and Channel 5 (the new U.K. national terrestrial TV network).

In early 1996, MAI, which has shares in the advertising sales house TSMS Group, merged with United News and Media, one of the U.K's biggest newspaper companies. United News' overseas interests are expected to help Hollick expand internationally.

Matra Hachette's Jean-Luc Lagardere and Grupo Zeta's Pizarro are present on the list because of their major investments in multimedia ventures. Small as these multimedia projects are in the existing audiovisual market, they appear to be the future of audiovisual entertainment.

From the Middle East comes a formidable line-up of media moguls. Walid Al Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, operates the London-based satellite TV Middle Eastern Broadcasting Center (MBC). Prince Bin Talal Al Waleed, a nephew of King Fahd, is an investor in Italy's Mediaset and in Rome-based satellite TV, ART.

From South Africa comes Anton Rupert, whose son Johann runs, among other companies, the Holland-based NetHold, which owns part of Mediaset, Telepiu and various other TV operations in 13 countries.

The Far East's most notable media mogul is Japan's Masayoshi Son (of Korean origin), who now co-owns TV Asahi.

This media mogul list has a personal worth cutoff of $500 million; thus TV barons like the U.K.'s Michael Green ($200 million) and Sweden's Jan Stenbeck ($30 million) didn't make the list.