Big five

From Wikipedia, the free 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. When the UN was formed in 1945, these five comprised a majority of the world's population, military might, and wealth, with the British Empire alone having nearly a quarter of the world's population.

[edit] Corporations

• The Big Five Western Oil Majors are commonly referred to as the Big Five. They comprise ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, British Petroleum (BP), Royal Dutch Shell (Shell), and ConocoPhillips.
• 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.
• Beginning in 2006, Big Five can also refer to 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.
• 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
• In Banking:
  • The Big Five commercial banks of the United Kingdom, HSBC Bank UK, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Halifax Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB.
  • 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.
  • Big Five can also refer to the five biggest banks in the People's Republic of China: The Chinese Big Four (banks) plus Bank of Communications

[edit] 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 a group of fictional characters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe. 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.
• The Big Five refers to two separate facets of the action figure industry:
  • In marketing terms, The Big Five are the major North American toy retailers: Wal*Mart, Kmart, Target, Toys R Us and KB Toys. For a toy line to be a financial success, it generally has to be available in at least three of the Big Five.
  • In terms of construction, The Big Five are the five points of articulation that are generally considered the most basic: neck, shoulders and hips. These are the five points at which Kenner's vintage Star Wars figures moved, and became a de facto standard for toys for quite some time after. Many fans hold the opinion that unless a toy has at least those five points, it cannot be considered an "action" figure.
• The Big Five was the informal name given to the top 5 players on the PGA Tour of America - Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson - from the end of 2004 until the beginning of 2006.

[edit] See also

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