• by Wayne Friedman , February 11, 2015

Media, communications and entertainment deals for companies continued to rise in 2014 -- amid some blockbuster deals.

The overall number of deals rose 3% -- 22 deals -- to 887 acquisitions, with dollar volume almost double to $176.8 billion from $92.6 billion, according to PwC’s U.S. Entertainment, Media & Communications.

Big 2014 announced deals included AT&T-DirecTV proposed acquisition for $48.1 billion; Comcast-Time Warner’s buy for $46.2 billion; and Facebook-WhatsApp proposed merger for $19.5 billion.

Advertising/marketing deals rose to 202 deals from 181, with volume falling to $12.3 billion from $20.4 billion due to the abandon deal to merge Omnicom and Publicis.

Internet-related deals -- the second-biggest category to advertising/marketing -- added 16 deals to total 170 rising to total dollar volume of $26.1 billion, with the Facebook deal for WhatsApp the primary reason.

Two categories which declined: broadcasting and telecommunications.

Broadcasting deals sank 32% to 59, in part due to a very active 2013, when big TV stations groups deals occurred. Total dollar volume in 2014 sank to $4 billion from $26.3 billion. Telecommunications deals dropped 44% to 107 with dollar volume cut in half to $16.1 billion from $33.4 billion.