There’s been a lot of consolidation in the media industry in recent years, leaving just a few giant media companies that dominate the industry. That number continued to shrink in 2025 as the industry experienced several reorganizations, minority investments, and full-on mergers.
Just six companies accounted for 90% of all media consumption in 2011, according to some estimates, leading to the idea of the "Big 6" in media. The media landscape remains just as concentrated today, if not more. The companies have changed, but six industry giants still account for almost all of U.S. media.
1. Comcast
NASDAQ: CMCSA
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2. Walt Disney
NYSE: DIS
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3. Warner Bros. Discovery
NASDAQ: WBD
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4. Paramount Skydance
NASDAQ: PSKY
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Paramount Skydance, formerly Paramount Global, formerly ViacomCBS, is the result of the re-merging of Viacom and CBS, followed by its acquisition by Skydance. It's a pure-play media company. The company owns the CBS broadcast network and studios, Showtime, and several U.S. and international cable networks. It's the home of Paramount Pictures studios, the publisher Simon & Schuster, and the streaming video services Pluto TV and Paramount+.
Owning CBS, the most-watched broadcast network in the U.S., and CBS and Paramount studios, with their strong content creation capabilities, gives Paramount a strong hand in producing very popular content.
5. Sony
Sony is a massive Japanese conglomerate with operations ranging from consumer electronics to image sensors to (of course) media. Its Sony Entertainment subsidiary includes film and television studios Sony Pictures, Columbia, and TriStar, among others. It controls some popular anime properties, including A-1 studios and the Crunchyroll streaming service. Sony also owns Sony Music Entertainment, one of the big three record labels.
Sony's media business is home to several popular franchises, including Men in Black, Spiderman, and Ghostbusters, and music libraries from artists, including Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, and Adele.
6. Amazon
Amazon entered the media business in 2010 with the launch of Amazon Studios, but it saw a big boost in its presence in 2021 after acquiring MGM Studios, home to popular franchises like James Bond and Rocky.
The media segment of the sprawling conglomerate owns several film production and distribution studios, including MGM, United Artists, and Orion Pictures. Its television studios include MGM Television and Big Fish Entertainment. It maintains the MGM+ streaming service in addition to Amazon's flagship Prime Instant Video service, which includes produced and licensed content.
Amazon also operates one of the biggest media distribution platforms. Consumers can rent or buy digital films, television episodes, audiobooks, or music, or stream music from Amazon.com. Prime members can also sign up for Prime Channels, which include other streaming services on Prime Video.
Competitive advantages of the Big 6 media companies
The biggest advantage of the Big 6 is their scale. Over the last two decades, box offices have been dominated by big-budget productions, leaving little room for smaller, independent films to turn a profit. Meanwhile, streaming distribution has changed the economics of television programming, requiring significant capital to maintain the rights of popular back-catalog content while investing heavily in new content to draw in subscribers.
Most of the Big 6 have control over popular intellectual property (IP), production studio assets, and strong brands. Those are key advantages that allow them to create reliable returns on their investments in new content.
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Future outlook for the media industry
Media companies are increasingly focused on profitability. They are moving in that direction in two ways. The first is through further consolidation. Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery have agreed to merge, which could create a streaming behemoth if it passes regulatory scrutiny. That could lead to further mergers between smaller companies like Paramount Skydance and Comcast.
The other strategy is to pare down operations and integrate them. That's why we've seen Comcast spinoff Versant and plans for WBD to ditch its cable networks, keeping only the most valuable properties. These networks could consolidate further with some networks disappearing and their content folded into more popular networks. In the age of streaming, networks have less concern about filling out a programming schedule and are more concerned about providing a broad set of content on demand.
These two trends could lead to some significant changes over the next few years as companies merge and reorganize.
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