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Top 100 Media Companies' Revenues Reach Record $287B in '06 »
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Top 100 Media Companies' Revenues Reach Record $287B in '06

The top 100 US media companies (the “Media 100″) in 2006 increased revenues 8.1%, bringing in $287 billion - a record - according to the Ad Age DataCenter, which reported that the 10 largest companies accounted for 55.6% of the top 100’s revenues.

 

Time Warner has held the No. 1 spot since 1995 and in 2006 brought in 11.8% of Media 100 revenue - or nearly one of eight dollars spent by advertisers and consumers on products and services from the top 100, writes AdAge.

First-ranked Time Warner is more than 100 times the size of the 100th-ranked Schurz Communications, a newspaper, broadcasting and cable operation with estimated revenue of $301 million.

Among the other data released by the Ad Age DataCenter:

• Media 100 internet revenue in 2006 shot up 22.7% and was the fastest-growing revenue source; 19th-ranked Google’s net US ad revenue was up 70%, reaching $4.1 billion.
• Cable systems followed internet in growth, with cable system and satellite revenue among the Media 100 up 14.8%, as a result of both higher prices and cable’s ability to sell additional services, according to AdAge.
• Cable’s Comcast Corp. ranked No. 2, and other major cable players - DirecTV Group, Cox Enterprises and EchoStar Communications - were also in the top 10.
• Time Warner owns 84% of Time Warner Cable, which was the second-largest cable system operator after Comcast.
• If one were to factor out cable system/satellite revenue, the Media 100’s growth rate would fall to 5.5% (instead of 8.1%).
• Among Media 100 traditional media companies, cable TV networks’ revenues increased most (8.6%). Yellow Pages (-0.5%) and newspapers (+0.4%) were at the bottom of the growth pile.