Largest Media Conglomerates Research Summary
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The largest media conglomerate in the U.S. is AT&T, with a revenue of $163.03 billion.
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Up to 90% of all U.S. media is controlled by only six companies.
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The U.S. Entertainment & Media market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.9% through 2030.
Before information gets handed down to people, it goes through a filtration system referred to as media companies. Magazines, social media, and television news networks are all examples of media mediums that conglomerates use to relay messages.
Arguably, most businesses and entertainment corporations in the modern age have become media companies to some degree.
Being the barrier between the masses and the knowledge they’re privy to puts a great deal of power in the hands of media companies. Media conglomerates are responsible for informing, and they are compensated well for it.
As of 2021 based on revenue and audience size, the 13 largest media conglomerates include:
A Closer Look at the Companies and How They Were Ranked
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AT&T. Headquarters: Dallas, Texas
Year Founded: 1983
2020 Annual Revenue: $163.030 billion
While ATT is mostly known to the public for being the world’s largest telecommunications company and cell phone provider, they’re also considered the biggest media conglomerate by revenue after the acquisition of Warner Media in 2018.
Since WarnerMedia is a major mass media company, it pushed its new owner into this role.
In the merger, ATT gained control of 98 recognizable companies that were previously functioning under Warner Media. Some of these include:
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HBO and Cinemax
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Turner Entertainment Networks
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Adult Swim and Cartoon Network
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CNN News Group
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DC Entertainment and Films
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Warner Bros Pictures
The bandwidth of viewership that ATT receives through these companies working under their domain, coupled with their immense yearly revenue makes them the largest media company to date.
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Comcast Corporation. Headquarters: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Year Founded: 1963
2022 Annual Revenue: $120.190 billion
Comcast Corporation owns one of the most influential mass media and entertainment organizations in the world, NBCUniversal. This acquisition gave Comcast control of numerous brands that have taken them to conglomerate status. Some of these include:
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Universal Pictures
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Dreamworks Animation
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Universal Parks and Resorts
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MSNBC
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Oxygen
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E!
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USA Network
These takeovers have made Comcast Corporation the second-largest broadcasting and television conglomerate in the world solely on the basis of revenue. They are also the largest cable television and internet service provider in America, serving areas in 40 States.
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The Walt Disney Company. Headquarters: Burbank, California
Year Founded: 1923
2022 Annual Revenue: $76.624 billion
Media conglomerates don’t necessarily have to be news channels. They can be the largest producer of American animated film and television production, like The Walt Disney Company.
Founded almost a hundred years ago, The Walt Disney Company is a mass media company that generally creates family-friendly content. Disney operates under a few film production company titles. These include:
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Walt Disney Pictures
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Walt Disney Animation Studios
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Pixar
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Marvel Studios
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20th Century Studios
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Searchlight Pictures
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Blue Sky Studios
Disney also owns several cable television networks, such as:
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Disney Channel
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Freeform
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ESPN
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FX
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National Geographic
In addition to television and movie production, The Walt Disney Company also earns a lot of its revenue from theme parks and consumer products.
Through these business avenues, The Walt Disney Company employs 223,000 people, as of 2019. More than a quarter of them work at Walt Disney World Resort, making them the largest single-location employer in the United States.
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Netflix. Headquarters: Los Gatos, California
Year Founded: 1997
2022 Annual Revenue: $30.40 billion
Netflix is one of the most impressive media companies to arise out of the 21st century. The business functions as a content streaming platform, and in recent years has transitioned into a production company as well.
In 2021, Netflix has officially reached the mark of 203.7 million subscribers worldwide, and nearly 66 million of them are Americans.
Netflix currently has headquarters all over the world, from England to Los Angeles. The company is well connected internationally, operating in more than 190 countries.
Today, Netflix is officially the biggest media company in terms of market capitalization, or market value.
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CBS. Headquarters: Manhattan, New York
Year Founded: 2019
2021 Annual Revenue: $28.6 billion
The establishment of ViacomCBS, similarly to many other media companies, emerged from a merger between CBS Corporation and Viacom in 2019. Hence their short history of little more than a year accounting for a seemingly enormous corporation.
ViacomCBS functions through a series of assets, much like the other conglomerates in the industry. The main holdings associated with ViacomCBS include:
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Paramount Pictures Film
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CBS Entertainment Group
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MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, and Showtime
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Simon Schuster Publishing
In total, the ViacomCBS conglomerate operates 170 networks with an estimated 700 million users across them.
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Facebook. Headquarters: Menlo Park, California
Year Founded: 2004
2022 Annual Revenue: $27.9 billion
Facebook is the #1 social networking website in the world, but it also acts as a media conglomerate. Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, insists the website is a technology company, as opposed to media.
Regardless, it’s taken on the form of mass media by providing people with news and loads of information on a grand scale.
Facebook is hesitant to label itself as a media source because it inherently makes them responsible for the information that’s reported on their website. With 2.8 billion users worldwide, that’s a lot of people to be responsible for informing.
Facebook is currently the third most popular website in the world, right behind Google and Youtube. The company also generates massive revenue annually, which is why it’s considered one of the largest media companies globally.
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Fox News. Headquarters: New York, New York
Year Founded: 2019
2022 Annual Revenue: $13.831 billion
The founding of Fox Corporation seems fairly recent, but that’s the result of a breakdown of its original company titled “21st Century Fox.”
When 21st Century Fox was dismantled, the majority of its stock was acquired by The Walt Disney Company. Some assets remained after the deal, and these went on to create the Fox Corporation.
Mainly, the Fox Corporation works in the news and sports sector of the television broadcast. Their operating assets include:
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Fox Broadcasting Company
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Fox Television Stations
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Fox News Media
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Fox Sports Media Group
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Tuning Streaming Service
Despite being the product of the pieces that were left behind, Fox Corporation continues to be one of the largest media conglomerates in the United States, and their growth is projected to rise.
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Hearst. Headquarters: New York, New York
Year Founded: 1887
2021 Annual Revenue: $11.4 billion
While they have a hand in television like many other media companies, Hearst Corporation mainly owns newspapers and magazines.
While the written forms of media have taken a major backseat to more visual mediums in the 21st century, they’re still a viable resource that millions of people use to gather information.
Hearst Corporation currently owns 360 companies in various fields. Some of the most popular media companies under their control include:
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Cosmopolitan
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ELLE
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Esquire
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Good Housekeeping
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O, The Oprah Magazine
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San Francisco Chronicle
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The News-Times
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Midland Daily News
That’s just to name a few businesses that the Hearst Corporation owns outright. The company also owns all A+E Networks in a 50/50 split with The Walt Disney Company.
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News. Headquarters: New York, New York
Year Founded: 2013
2019 Annual Revenue: $10.074 billion
The News Corp that exists today was an offspring of a conglomerate that had been around since 1980 under the full title of “News Corporation.”
The rejuvenated version of News Corp is a media company owned by Rupert Murdoch, which does its business in news production, television, and book publishing.
A sister company to another spin-off company, Fox Corporation, News Corp holds an eclectic group of assets. Some of the most profitable companies under their control include:
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News UK
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Dow Jones Company
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News Corp Australia
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HarperCollins Publishing
News Corp is also a player in the digital real estate market as the owner of REA Group and Realtor.com.
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WarnerMedia. Headquarters: New York, New York
Year Founded: 1990
2022 Annual Revenue: $8.74 billion
Previously known as Time Warner, WarnerMedia was acquired by ATT in 2018 for the sum of $85 billion and the assumption of the acquisition’s debt. This effectively pushed ATT into being the largest media conglomerate in the United States by revenue.
WarnerMedia has ties to film, television, and cable companies. Some of their assets in this department include:
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Turner Broadcasting
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HBO
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Warner Bros.
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New Line Cinema
Warner Media was ranked 98th on the Fortune 500 list in 2018.
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Nexstar Media Group. Headquarters: Irving, Texas
Year Founded: 1996
2021 Annual Revenue: $4.65 billion
2019 Growth Rate: +9.85%
There are many media companies that own a television station here and there, but Nexstar Media Group is the largest owner of television stations in America.
The company currently controls 197 television stations, many of which are members of large networks such as CBS, FOX, and NBC.
Altogether, Nexstar stations reach an estimated 68% of all the television sets in America.
The Nexstar Media Group employs 13,000 individuals across the United States as of 2021. The company has also received over 3,000 broadcasting and journalism awards over the past 12 years for its commitment to news programming.
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Gannett. Headquarters: Tysons Corner, Virginia
Year Founded: 1906
2021 Annual Revenue: $3.21 billion
2019 Growth Rate: +18.18%
While newspapers aren’t the most popular method of intaking news these days, it’s still a huge business that brings in millions of dollars every year. Gannett Co is the largest publisher of newspapers across the United States.
Their most well-known publication is the national newspaper called USA Today. However, Gannett is also responsible for many smaller newspapers that are local to particular cities.
Some of the local newspapers that Gannett owns include:
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The Indianapolis Star
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The Cincinnati Enquirer
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The Tennessean
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Great Falls Tribune
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The Arizona Republic
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iHeart Media. Headquarters: San Antonio, Texas
Year Founded: 1972
2022 Annual Revenue: $136.8 Million
A media conglomerate that’s known for its presence in radio broadcasting is iHeart Media. They’re the main controller of radio in the United States by owning over 850 AM and FM radio stations.
The company is also mixed up in the world of internet radio and podcasts through their user-friendly digital platform called “iHeart Radio”.
As of 2021, iHeart Media is the largest audio company in the United States. They currently get approximately 250 million dedicated listeners every month, making iHeart Media one of the biggest media corporations based on audience attention.
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Author
Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.
