Cable: What Media Recession?

Revenue at the Top 100 media companies is expected to show its first decline since trade magazine Advertising Age began tracking the figures back in 1981. Media company revenue fell 4.3% in the first half, according to data.While 11 of the firms on last year’s list are in bankruptcy reorganization, cable companies and satellite TV have been the silver bullet. Revenue in those sectors grew an eye popping 7.4% in 2008. The magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s media companies had some other nuggets.

Quick name the biggest media company? Answer: Comcast with net media revenue of $29 billion in 2008, up 7.7% on the previous year. Comcast replaced Time Warner at the top, though Time Warner is intentionally slimming down, it spun-off its cable systems arm and plans to regift AOL in 2009.

Which of the top media conglomerates earn the most revenue from cable networks? Disney earned a stunning $9 billion in 2008 (ESPN was their top earner responsible for almost $6 billion of that figure.) Surprisingly, NBC Universal is only fifth on the list on $3.8 billion, behind Time Warner, Viacom and News Corp.

Top broadcast network by gross ad revenue? CBS - $6.6 billion, ABC - $6.1 billion, NBC - $5.3 billion and Fox - $4.5 billion. Spanish-language players have a lot of catching up to do by that score. Univision came in at $2 billion while Telemundo raked in $ 928 million. Last but not least, CW bagged $790 million.