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Turnovers Made by the Largest Media Concerns

Bertelsmann, Vivendi and Lagardère are the three largest media companies on the European market. With which companies do they share the European market? And how large is the proportion of European media companies on the global media market?

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The 50 worldwide strongest media companies as far as turnover is concerned achieved in total a turnover of 360 billion euros in the year 2006. Of this, nearly 71 percent or over 255 billion euros fell to non-European companies. The group of non-European companies is clearly dominated by the USA with reference to both the number of companies and the profits gained. In 2006, of the 30 non-European companies, 20 came from the USA, six from Japan and two from Australia, as well as one company each from Canada and Mexico.

The twenty US-American companies gained a turnover of nearly 194 billion euros. This lay 84 percent over the turnover made by the twenty strongest European companies. With a turnover of a good 105 billion euros, the European companies made 29.2 percent of the total turnovers belonging to the 50 strongest media companies worldwide.

Of the twenty European companies which had the edge in terms of turnover in 2006, eight came from Great Britain, and three each from Germany, France and Italy respectively as well as two from the Netherlands and one company which was based in Spain.

The European concern with the strongest turnover is the Bertelsmann AG from Germany. With a turnover of over 19 billion euros, this concern was responsible in 2006 for 18.3 percent of the total turnovers for the twenty strongest European media concerns. The next in line were Vivendi and Lagardère from France, with 8.9 and 7.7 percent, as well as the Reed Elsevier Group and Pearson from Great Britain, with proportions of 7.2 and 6.2 percent of the total turnovers. The fifteen other European companies had in total a turnover of over 54 billion euros.

There are large differences as far as the proportions of profits are concerned in the total company turnovers in each country of origin. Whereas Vivendi made 62 percent of the profits in its country of origin, France, the proportion for the Reed Elsevier Group is only 16.6 percent. Bertelsman, the strongest European media concern, gained 30.6 percent of the turnovers coming from its country of origin, Germany, in 2006.
There are similar large differences between the respective turnover proportions for the individual fields of business.

Independent of the turnovers in the respective country of origin, the leading European media concerns often show a dominant position on foreign media markets. For example, companies in the Bertelsmann group have become one of the three largest providers in at least one of the different media branches in five European countries.
The east European states are directly affected by the dominance shown by western media companies. In more than half of these countries, foreign companies are among the leaders in TV, radio, newspaper and magazine markets. While the Baltic States have mainly become the expansion target for Swedish and Norwegian companies, the markets in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are particularly dominated by German and Swiss companies.

Data sources

The Institut für Medien- und Kommunikationspolitik (Institute for media and communication policies); financial reports from the companies Bertelsmann, Lagardère, Reed Elsevier and Pearson; Meier, Werner A./ Trappel, Josef, 2006: Die transnationale Vermachtung durch Medienkonzerne als Voraussetzung für europäische Öffentlichkeit? (transnational domination via media concerns as a prerequisite of European publicity)? , in: Langenbucher, Wolfgang R./ Latzer, Michael (Hrsg.): Europäische Öffentlichkeit und medialer Wandel. Eine transdisziplinäre Perspektive (European publicity and the transformation of the media: a trans-disciplinary perspective), Wiesbaden, pp. 262-275.

Methodical remarks

When ranking the largest media concerns in the world, the parent company counts as being the most important factor, even if a subsidiary company alone shows a turnover the size of rival concerns. The size of a concern is measured via the media turnover from the last fiscal year. The basis for the turnover figures is the amount in original currency. For calculation into euros, the official yearly average rate of the respective year has been used.

Source: IfM; financial reports from Bertelsmann, Lagardère, Reed Elsevier and Pearson
Updated: 11.2007

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