The World's Richest Media Companies In 2021 | TheRichest.com

The media industry involves many areas: broadcasting, networking, advertising, news, publication and print, recording, digital, and motion pictures. Media companies make sure that all these areas are available to us, consumers.

As time flies, fewer and fewer people use broadcast or cable television. "Linear TV is dying at an incredibly rapid pace both in terms of viewership and subscribers to the decades-old multi-channel bundle. Everyone is chasing Netflix now, whether it be cable companies or programmers. The future is going to be direct-to-consumer," says to Forbes Rich Greenfield, the general partner at media research firm LightShed Partners. Thus, many media companies had to adapt to the new conditions. Here are some of the companies that make a lot of money and successfully operate today.

This well-known streaming service started its path in the long-ago 1997 as a DVD-by-mail business. It's generated a solid amount when doing its DVD rental business, $297 million in revenue. Still, today it's making a lot as well, thanks to its accessibility. The only condition for the access is to have the Internet and money to pay for a subscription, of course. Netflix has more than 200 million paid subscribers in over 190 countries.

Disney was founded way earlier than Netflix, in 1923 in California. It's a giant company covering several huge and successful segments, like media networks, studio entertainment, interactive media, parks, and resorts. Since 2019, the company has launched Disney Plus, a streaming service that offers movies, shows, blockbuster films, and old Disney content. In the first quarter of 2020, the platform reached 50 million subscribers.

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One of the biggest media companies in the world was founded in 1963. It's the largest cable TV company, a home Internet service provider, and the largest pay-TV company in the US. In addition, Comcast owns the UK-based company Sky Group and NBC Universal, Peackok, a new streaming service, Universal Pictures, and several animation studios, like DreamWorks Animation.

The largest telecommunications company globally and the largest mobile telephone services provider in the USA that started its path in 1983. Since 2018, it has owned HBO, Turner Broadcasting, CNN, TNT, TBS, and Cartoon Network. A year earlier, in 2017, the company introduced a streaming service based on DVR, which eventually was named HBO Max. This spring, AT&T announced its plans to combine WarnerMedia with Discovery. The new company is planned to be a strong competitor for Netflix and Disney+.

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The company is a bit behind AT&T and Comcast, the second-largest cable operator in the US and the third-largest pay-TV operator. In 2015, it acquired Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable company in the US, for $87.4 billion. Today, Charter Communications are operating under its brand Spectrum. It has over 30 million customers worldwide who watch high-quality original shows, news coverage, and sports through Spectrum Networks and Spectrum Originals.

Sony is a Japanese company that's mainly known as a music and electronics giant. Yet, it's the third-largest film studio in the world. Sony Group is under the umbrella of the Sony Group Corporation that involves Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Entertainment (Sony Pictures, Sony Music), and Sony Financial Holdings. Sony Entertainment emerged in 1983 when the company acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment for $3.4 billion. For now, it's produced some prominent franchises, like Spider-Man, Men in Black, and The Karate Kid.

The COVID situation has definitely challenged the global media industry. Suspension of television and film projects led to postponed release dates. Additionally, people stopped attending cinemas, parks, stadiums, and resorts due to the lockdown. Consequently, this led to significant losses in profits from advertisement, ticket sales, merchandising, and promotions. Nevertheless, there's only a solution, and that's how streaming services started to succeed. According to yahoo finance, "Netflix has seen a 22.8% increase in the number of subscriptions in the first quarter of 2020, while Disney+ has reached 50 million subscribers worldwide 2 years ahead of schedule." Well, it seems that there are no unsettled questions.

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Sources: Investopedia.com, Forbes.com, Yahoo.finance.com

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