January 25, 2023
Time Warner Dominates Global Media Dollars, Google In Market Value
- by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, February 22, 2007
The report, which is based on an analysis of 2005 revenues, also shows two online media companies--Google and Yahoo--breaking into the top 30. Based on Google's current revenue pacing--nearly $11 billion annualized, and about twice what ZenithOptimedia estimated its 2005 value at--the online search engine would actually rank well ahead of many of the "traditional" media companies on the ZenithOptimedia list.
advertisement
advertisement
The landscape of top media owners could well change again in the near future as a result of mergers, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts. In an interview with Fortune magazine, former NBC Universal chief and GE Vice Chairman Bob Wright said a merger of NBC Universal and Time Warner "would be a great combination," and was a real possibility. Wright described such a merger as a marriage of "equals," but a MediaDailyNews compilation of the market capitalizations of the world's biggest media companies shows that GE (valued by Wall Street at $370.2 billion) is four times bigger than Time Warner's stock market value.
Interestingly, Google--perhaps the most pure play advertising player of all the companies on the list--ranks No. 2 in terms of market caps, and is at least twice the size of companies like Time Warner, Walt Disney Co., CBS and News Corp.
Top Global Media Owners Ranked By Ad Revenues Vs. Market Value | |||
Ranked By '05 Advertising Revenues | Estimated Advertising Revenues (In Billions) | Ranked By Current Stock Market Capitalization | Current Market Capitalization (In Billions) |
Time Warner | $29.834 | General Electric* | $370.2 billion |
News Corp. | $16.726 | $145.7 billion | |
General Electric | $14.689 | Time Warner | $84.1 billion |
CBS | $13.389 | Walt Disney | $72.0 billion |
Walt Disney | $13.207 | Yahoo | $43.1 billion |
DirecTV | $12.958 | DirecTV | $28.6 billion |
Bertelsmann | $9.622 | CBS | $24.8 billion |
Cox Enterprises | $9.452 | News Corp. | $24.6 billion |
Advance Pubs. | $7.536 | BSkyB | $19.3 billion |
Gannett | $7.162 | Clear Channel | $18.0 billion |
BSkyB | $6.772 | Gannett | $14.8 billion |
Clear Channel | $6.078 | Tribune | $7.3 billion |
$6.065 | Bertelsmann | NA | |
Tribune | $5.339 | Cox Enterprises | NA |
Yahoo | $5.258 | Advance Publications | NA |
Source: Revenues/rankings = ZenithOptimedia's "Top Thirty Global Media Owners," based on the agency's estimates for revenues "from activities that support advertising." *Total for General Electric, including media operations. NA = not available. | |||
