• 21st Century Fox and News Corp both rank top 10
Alphabet (the new name for Google’s holding company) has increased its lead as the world’s largest media owner in the new ranking published by Zenith. The company’s media revenues total US$60bn, 166% more than its nearest rival’s, Walt Disney. Alphabet has steadily pulled away from Disney over the past few years. Last year it was 136% larger than Disney, up 21% on the previous year.
The Top 30 Global Media Owners report is a unique ranking of the world’s largest media companies by media revenue, as estimated by Zenith. The report was launched in 2007 and was last published by Zenith in 2015. Zenith defines media revenue as all revenue deriving from businesses that support advertising, to determine which companies are most important for the marketing industry.
There are four other digital giants among the top 30 global media owners – Facebook, Baidu, Yahoo and Microsoft – and all have risen up the ranking this year. Facebook has moved up from 10th place last year to 5th place this year, Baidu has moved up from 14th to 9th, Yahoo from 18th to 15th, and Microsoft from 21st to 17th. Facebook is the fastest‐growing media owner in our top 30, with media revenues up 65% on last year. Baidu is second‐fastest (up by 52%) and Alphabet is third (up by 17%).