Media & Entertainment (2.9) · Industry Index

Overview

Media & Entertainment spans the businesses that create and distribute content and experiences — film and television, broadcast, digital streaming, music, publishing, live events, podcasting, gaming, and talent representation. It is a large sector in the midst of a historic transition as streaming reshapes how content is funded, distributed, and consumed.

Value is shifting from legacy broadcast and print toward streaming, gaming, live events, and music catalogs, and the industry is consolidating aggressively (Disney–Fox, Warner–Discovery, Amazon–MGM). Traditional media revenue is flat overall, masking sharp declines in broadcast and print against growth in music, live events, and digital.

Market snapshot

Market size: ~$374B
Growth: ~2.1%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
Companies: ~102,731 firms

Firms by employee count

94% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 96,524 micro-businesses, below most mandates.

The investable universe6,196 firms with 20+ employees

20–99: 4,53573%
100–499: 1,08317%
500+: 5789%

Percentages are of the 20+ employee universe. 20–99 and 100–499 are the lower-middle market; 500+ is at scale.

The $374B sizes measurable, traditional media — film and TV production, broadcast, publishing, music, live events, and talent. It deliberately leaves out the streaming and social-platform layer: the one federal code that would capture it bundles Netflix-style streaming together with social networks, so adding its ~$301B would sweep Meta and YouTube into 'media & entertainment' and overstate the sector. Streaming is the defining force here, but it is called out on its own page rather than summed into a headline it would distort — and gaming, classified as software, is tracked in Technology.

NAICS 512110, 512120, 512131, 512132, 512191, 512199, 512230, 512240, 512250, 512290, 513110, 513120, 513130, 513140, 513191, 513199, 516110, 516120, 711110, 711120, 711130, 711190, 711310, 711320, 711410, 711510. U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Economic Census.

Business model & economics

Revenue model

Advertising, subscription, licensing, box office, and live ticketing

Key economics

Revenue per firm: $3,637,608
Revenue per employee: $312,143
Employees per firm: 11.4
Recurring revenue: Mixed
EBITDA margin: Varies widely by sub-sector and content economics
Capex intensity: Moderate

Characteristics

Scale-driven — payroll is only 22% of revenue; the cost base is assets, not headcount
Deep strategic-buyer pool — 578 firms exceed 500 employees, so a scaled asset has trade buyers
Value shifting from broadcast/print to streaming, gaming, and live.
Aggressive consolidation amid the streaming transition.
Music catalogs and live events are high-demand asset classes.

NAICS 512110, 512120, 512131, 512132, 512191, 512199, 512230, 512240, 512250, 512290, 513110, 513120, 513130, 513140, 513191, 513199, 516110, 516120, 711110, 711120, 711130, 711190, 711310, 711320, 711410, 711510. U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Economic Census.

Geographic concentration

Media and entertainment concentrate hard in the industry capitals — California carries nearly three times its expected share of firms, with New York a distant second and Nevada (Las Vegas live entertainment) third; Nashville and Washington, D.C. round out the specialists. The map barely moves across sub-segments — film, live events, and talent all cluster in the same two coastal centers — which is why the firm count, not raw population, is what surfaces the concentration.

CaliforniaNew YorkNevada

U.S. Census Bureau — 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses (firms by state), NAICS 512110/512120/512131/512132/512191/512199/512230/512240/512250/512290/513110/513120/513130/513140/513191/513199/516110/516120/711110/711120/711130/711190/711310/711320/711410/711510. Concentration shown by location quotient.

M&A deal context

Deal activityHigh

Who’s acquiring

Media conglomerates & streamers
PE-backed content and catalog investors
Live-entertainment platforms

What’s driving deals

Consolidation driven by the streaming transition.
Music-catalog and live-events asset acquisition.
Distress and roll-ups in declining broadcast and print.

Media & Entertainment