Who are the biggest players in media? 🗞

And where does Waystar Royco rank? Just kidding.

To commemorate the end of Succession (possibly the best TV show that has graced our screens in history, sorry Breaking Bad 😓), we take a look at the media industry. Who are the biggest players, and how is the real-life Logan Roy’s media empire doing? Keep reading to find out!

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We start off by comparing the US media industry forty years ago and present day. Back in 1983, there was a lot more competition and around fifty companies in the media space. However, as time has gone on the number of media companies has gone down, while their size has grown hugely. Nowadays, there are only six, usually referred to as ‘The Big Six’, consisting of Comcast, Disney, AT&T, Paramount, Sony, and Fox. Each of these six companies own a large network of TV channels (including the news), film studios, and streaming services.

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The biggest name in media probably goes to Rupert Murdoch, said to be the inspiration for Logan Roy in Succession. He has made his riches through his media empire and owns News Corp which has many recognisable assets, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Sun and even publishing giant HarperCollins.

However, looking at News Corp’s latest financials from 2022 they appear to be doing just ok. They are at least making a profit (of $600M), however their margins are only about 6-8%, which is not great compared to the average of media companies. These margins are the result of very high expenses, as may be seen below in the Sankey diagram.

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Let’s delve into the financial performance of two of the largest media companies in the world: Comcast and Disney. Starting off with Comcast we can see their revenue is very impressive at a huge $121.4B! The majority of their revenue comes from cable communications, responsible for over half of the total.

It is clear that they have significant expenses, and their total costs and expenses eats into almost 90% of their revenue, leaving them with an operating income of $14B. They are eventually left with a net income (attributable to Comcast) of $5.4B.

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Now looking at Disney, their revenue is still impressive at $82.7B, although not as high as Comcast. Disney’s total revenue in 2022 was 23% higher than in 2021, and its net profit of $3.1 billion was 58% higher than its 2021 performance. The main driver of this increase is the re-opening of Disney parks following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite these numbers, Disney’s 2022 performance actually failed to match analyst expectations, causing share prices to drop by 8% following the release of its annual report. Furthermore, Disney+ as a segment of the company is not yet profitable, with $1.5 billion in losses reported in the streaming division in 2022.

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See you on Wednesday for charts all about mega trends!

Created by Amara

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