Google, Not Disney, Is The World's Largest Media Owner

Investors can't be blamed for thinking Walt Disney Co DIS is the largest media, particularly given its portfolio of content includes the "Star Wars" and "Marvel" franchises.

According to ZenithOptimedia's annual ranking of media owners, the title of the world's largest media firm by revenue is Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL.

The Hollywood Reporter, citing ZenithOptimedia's report, noted that Alphabet/Google raked $59.6 billion in revenue. Disney ranked second with $22.5 billion, followed by Comcast Corporation CMSA, which ranking third with $19.7 billion.

Perhaps coming as a surprise to some, Facebook Inc FB is the fastest growing media content owner in the top 30 with a 65 percent year-over-year revenue growth.

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"Their dominance of internet advertising has made it difficult for many media owners to replace lost revenues from their traditional businesses with new digital revenues," said Zenith. "Nearly half of our top 30 media owners have lost media revenues compared to last year."

Said Jonathan Barnard, Zenith's head of forecasting, "The traditional media owners in our top 30 ranking have been scrambling to scale up their own digital businesses, to various degrees of success. As digital ad technology — such as programmatic buying — spreads to traditional media, it will further shake up the businesses of traditional media owners, but also provide them with new opportunities for growth."