Warc, May 2014
LONDON: Google remains by some distance the world's leading
media company but there are signs that the current order is set to change as a
new report reveals two Chinese businesses have joined the top rankings.
The Top Thirty Global Media Owners report, from
ZenithOptimedia, the media services network, ranked the world's largest media
companies by media revenue (defined as all revenue deriving from businesses
that support advertising, not just the advertising revenue itself).
CCTV, China's national state television company, and Baidu,
the country's main search engine, entered the Top 30 ranking in 23rd and 28th
place respectively. They joined Brazil's Globo as the only companies based in
emerging markets on the list.
"The arrival of CCTV and Baidu in our Top 30 list is
testament to the size and dynamism of the Chinese market," said Jonathan
Barnard, Head of Forecasting at ZenithOptimedia. "But we expect a much
greater presence from emerging market media owners once they start to expand
their international operations in earnest," he added.
Most of the top media owners are already international in
scope, with only seven in ZenithOptimedia's ranking devoted to one market. As
well as Baidu, CCTV and Globo in their home markets, Cox Enterprises is largely
restricted to the US, while Asahi Shimbun Company, Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings and
Fuji Media Holdings are all focused on Japan.
Google, the top media owner, had revenues 47% higher than
the second‐largest, DirecTV. The report noted that this gap had widened from
39% in the 2013 edition, as Google's core search function benefited from the
rapid rise in search volumes from smartphones and tablets.
Disney had overtaken News Corporation to secure third place
after News Corporation split into two separate operations. One of these – 21st
Century Fox, which holds the film and television interests – ranked fourth,
while News Corporation retained the print interests and was still large enough
to rank 12th.
Time Warner is likewise set to spin off its print division,
but while the remaining television and film operations will keep it in sixth
position in the rankings, magazine publisher Time Inc will not place within the
Top 30.
The rest of the top ten include Comcast in fifth, Cox
Enterprises in seventh (up one place from 2013), BSkyB in eighth (up two
places), Bertelsmann in ninth (down two places) and CBS Corporation in tenth
(down one place).
Data sourced from ZenithOptimedia; additional content by
Warc staff
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