Largest media and entertainment companies: the top 19 by revenue, after the Warner Bros. deal

This list is for anyone who sells to media and entertainment companies (production services, ad tech, software, live event services, staffing) and for readers who want a ranking they can check. Revenue and headcount come from each company's latest annual report on Form 10-K or 20-F, opened on SEC EDGAR, and from Bertelsmann's own published results. Other currencies are converted at the Federal Reserve's 2025 average rates.

The 19 largest media and entertainment companies by revenue

Revenue is total revenue as reported ("net revenue" for Nexstar, "total net revenue" for Roku, "group revenues" for Bertelsmann). Skydance's figure is our sum of Warner Bros. Discovery's $37.3 billion and Paramount Skydance's $28.9 billion for 2025; Paramount's 10-K reports 2025 in two periods (1 January to 6 August, before the Skydance merger, and 7 August to 31 December), which we added together. Sony's figure is its Music and Pictures segment sales; its game segment is on our largest gaming companies list. Conversions use the Federal Reserve's 2025 annual averages (G.5A): $1.1306 per euro and ¥149.5686 per dollar. Sony's year ended 31 March 2026, so its conversion is an approximation. Headquarters are the principal offices on file with the SEC; Bertelsmann's is in Germany.

A few rows need a note:

• The Warner Bros. deal. Netflix agreed in December 2025 to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's studios and streaming business. Warner Bros. Discovery terminated that agreement on 27 February 2026 and agreed instead to merge with Paramount Skydance, which paid Netflix a $2.8 billion termination fee on its behalf. The merger closed in early October 2026; the company renamed itself Skydance Corporation and moved its stock to the New York Stock Exchange as SKYD. Its first combined annual report won't appear until 2027.
• Comcast completed the separation of its cable networks business as Versant Media Group on 2 January 2026, so its 2025 revenue still includes those networks.
• Disney's fiscal 2026 ended in late September 2026; its 10-K for that year wasn't filed by 30 October 2026.

Left out: advertising holding companies such as Omnicom ($17.3 billion for 2025, which bought Interpublic during the year) and technology platforms that earn most of their money from ads. For scale, Alphabet's 10-K reports $40.4 billion of YouTube ad revenue for 2025, up from $36.1 billion, which would put YouTube sixth on its own.

What the ranking shows

Distribution still out-earns content. Comcast and Charter earn much of their revenue from broadband and cable subscriptions, and neither grew: Comcast's revenue was flat and Charter's fell 0.6%, which its 10-K puts down primarily to fewer customers.

Streaming is the growth. Netflix grew 15.9%, Roku 15.2% and Spotify 9.7%. Over the same year, Warner Bros. Discovery's revenue fell 5.1% (advertising down 10%) and Nexstar's 8.5% (advertising down 18.9%).

Live is a big business. Live Nation reported $25.2 billion, more than Fox and News Corp combined, and says it promoted about 55,000 live music and other events in 2025. Liberty Media (Formula 1 and, from 2025, MotoGP) grew 22.7%.

Consolidation keeps changing the list. Skydance and Paramount merged in August 2025, Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery in October 2026, and Omnicom and Interpublic in 2025. Rankings older than a few months will show companies that no longer exist.

How we built the list

1. Who counts. Public companies whose main business is producing or distributing video, audio, music, news and books, or live entertainment, plus Bertelsmann, which publishes audited results although it isn't listed. Video game publishers are on a separate list.
2. What's counted. Total revenue as reported for the latest fiscal year with an annual report filed by 30 October 2026. For Sony, a diversified group, we count only the segments that are media.
3. Mergers. Where two companies on the list merged after their last annual reports, we add their reported revenues and say so. We don't adjust for intercompany sales or pro forma effects.
4. Checking. We started from the SEC's structured financial data and matched every figure to the filing. Paramount Skydance's 2025 revenue isn't tagged as a full-year figure at all, because its year is split in two.
5. What's missing. Private companies that don't publish results, and companies listed only outside the US that we couldn't open on 30 October 2026, such as Universal Music Group, whose investor site refused our request.

Market-value rankings, which many of the top search results use, put Netflix first among media companies. Fortune and Forbes publish their own lists; their order won't match this one.

Selling to the largest media companies

Media companies buy in small, separate budgets: a production, a live tour, an ad sales team, a streaming product. This is general guidance; practice varies by company.

Sell to the production or the venue. Paramount reported about 3,600 project-based staff on its payroll at the end of 2025, alongside 17,600 employees. Much of a studio's spending is committed one title at a time, by the people running that production.

Time outreach around mergers. After a merger, the combined company reviews its vendors and looks for savings. Skydance issued $41.4 billion of senior secured notes on 5 October 2026 to fund the Warner Bros. deal, according to its 8-K. A vendor that can show savings across both legacy companies has an opening; one that serves only one side should expect a review.

Plan for seasonality in live. Live Nation's 10-K says its seasonal and part-time workforce peaked at as many as 37,000 in 2025, mostly in summer. Its sponsorship sales force of about 830 people worked with more than 1,500 sponsors. For finding the owner of a budget inside a big company, see how to find decision makers.

Worked example

Illustrative example. Shiftline (shiftline.example) sells scheduling and payroll software for event staff at $6 per active worker per month, and wants a live entertainment customer.

1. Pick the target. Live Nation is the obvious one: about 17,000 seasonal and part-time employees at year-end and as many as 37,000 at the summer peak.
2. Size the deal. Averaging the two figures gives about 27,000 active workers a month (our assumption). 27,000 x $6 x 12 = about $1.9 million a year for full deployment.
3. Start smaller. A realistic first deal is one region's venues, say 3,000 workers: 3,000 x $6 x 12 = $216,000 a year, small enough for a regional operations budget.
4. Find the buyer. The decision sits with regional venue operations and HR, with IT security reviewing the software. Shiftline times its first approach for the autumn, after the summer peak and before the next season's hiring.

At volume, finding the right regional or production contact at each company is the slow part; Bebop researches each account in the list and drafts the outreach.

Next step: see how the second-largest company in the list is staffed in our profile of Disney's employees.