Vertical: ICTBase Year: 2018
Market Size (2018)
$2.12B
Projected (2030)
$6.71B
CAGR (2014–2030)
8.6%
Key Players
15+
Entertainment and media industry is widely diversified and has witnessed a transformation in terms of technology and applications in recent years. This transformation has led to the global entertainment and media enterprises to offer innovative content and effective distribution models to stay ahead in the highly competitive market. The key players in the market are constantly developing strategies to combine high quality content and distribute it to offer enhanced user experience in terms of content discovery and attractive prices. The industry is significantly benefitted by digital tools and platforms facilitating efficient production, distribution and consumption of content revolutionizing the market growth. Key factors contributing to the market growth are increasing penetration of smartphones, growing eSports sector, rising demand for on-demand and live streaming of music and videos and growing investments by key players for development of augmented reality and virtual reality platforms. Other factors influencing the market growth are increasing number of television subscriptions, growing number of radio listeners, rapidly growing video game market, outdoor advertising, and rising penetration of social media among the consumers.
The entertainment and media industry is expected to attain a rapid growth with advancements in digital technologies and the emergence of 5G network connectivity services in the coming years. Emerging small and medium enterprises offering regional and local content to international audience also promotes the industry’s growth. Artificial Intelligence is expected to have an impact on the gaming sector with consumers demanding enhanced gaming experience will present an opportunity for key players to invest. However, controlling piracy and proper enforcement of laws still remains a restraint for the market players. The entertainment and media market witness billions of dollars of loss due to piracy and illegal file sharing practices. Growing cyber-attacks on online platforms also pose a challenge to address for the market players.
The global entertainment and media market has generated a revenue of USD 2,115.2 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach a market value of USD 6,709.4 billion by 2030 growing at a 10.40% CAGR. North America accounts for 42% market share in the entertainment and media market due to the increasing adoption of smartphones. Growing film industry, increasing adoption of video streaming services and video games among the individual users in North America are expected to drive the entertainment and media market throughout the forecast period.
The European entertainment and media market acquired around 27% market share globally in 2018. Europe is witnessing high adoption rate of TV subscriptions, rising radio listeners, increasing popularity of video games and e-books. Among the European countries, currently, Germany is dominating the market with a market share of 31%, followed by the UK with a 26%, and France with a 16% market share. Russia is projected to grow with the fastest CAGR of 13.06% during the forecast period in the entertainment and media market due to its increasing adoption of smartphones and rising penetration of internet. Further, the growing adoption of e-sports, e-books and over-the-top (OTT) services in countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Poland is also expected to boost market growth in Europe.
The entertainment and media market in Asia-Pacific acquired a 23% market share in terms of revenue generation as China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines are experiencing significant growth in their respective entertainment and media industry. Further, growing digitalization is driving the growth of smartphones and video games in the region, which is thereby expected to fuel the market growth of entertainment and media in the region.
The entertainment and media market in the rest of the world acquired around 8% market share globally in 2018. This region is witnessing high adoption of digital platforms for viewing video content and listening to music in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.
The Entertainment and Media Market market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.6% from 2014 to 2030.
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View Subscription PlansThe entertainment and media market consists of major sub segments including movies/cinema, television, music, publishing, radio, internet, advertising and gaming. Media refers to the means of mass communication which include broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet. Entertainment is generally associated with content like video, audio and gaming among others. Together, the entertainment and media market encompasses a vast array of segments generating revenue through advertisements, broadcast rights, intellectual property rights, ticket sales and public and private funding among others. The entertainment and media market is currently being transformed by latest industrial developments such as wireless, mobile, devices, digitization, 5G, cloud storage, consumer analytics, and social media platforms.
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View Subscription PlansThis report applies a rigorous multi-stage research process combining primary interviews, secondary data sources, and bottom-up market modelling to ensure accuracy and completeness across all segments and geographies.
Base Year
2018
Historical Period
2014 – 2017
Forecast Period
2019 – 2030
Primary Interviews
150+
Historical data (2014–2018) and forecast period (2018–2030)
Our research process spans primary interviews with industry stakeholders combined with comprehensive secondary data analysis, validated through triangulation across multiple independent sources.
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View Subscription PlansThe Entertainment and Media market is characterized by the presence of many global, regional, and local players. The market is competitive with all the players competing to gain market share. Strong competition, and increasing adoption of cloud, IoT and AI, are key factors that confront the market growth. The vendors compete based on cost, product quality, reliability, and aftermarket services. It is crucial for the vendors to provide cost-efficient and high-quality services to survive and succeed in an intensely competitive market.
Wantstats includes following key players for Entertainment and Media market research study: Alphabet Inc (Google), The Walt Disney Company, Comcast Corporation, Facebook, Inc., Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA (Bertelsmann), Viacom, Inc., CBS Corporation, Baidu Inc, News Corporation, Advance Publications, Inc., iHeartMedia, Inc, Discovery Communication Inc., Grupo Globo, Warner Media LLC (AT&T), Verizon Communications Inc., Dish Network, Netflix, NBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, Fox Broadcasting Company, 21st Century Fox.
The global Entertainment and Media market is characterized by the presence of several global, regional, and local players.
According to Wantstats analysis, Alphabet Inc (Google)is currently leading the global entertainment and media market. The company has presence in the entertainment and media market through its subsidiary, Google. Google offers a wide range of products in entertainment and media market including its video streaming services such as YouTube and Anvato. YouTube has around 1.9 billion monthly active users and includes a large variety of content. The company generates large share of its revenue in the entertainment and media market through Google Ads. The company constantly focuses on developing new technologies for enhancing the user experience which provides it with a competitive edge in the entertainment and media market.
Comcast Corporation occupies the second position in the entertainment and media market. The company operates in the entertainment and media market through its business segments including cable communications, cable networks, broadcast television, filmed entertainment, theme parks, and corporate. The company focuses on strategic mergers and acquisition to increase its market presence and strengthen its market position. For instance, the acquisition of Sky helped Comcast to increase its presence in the European market as well as expand its product offerings. The company offers a wide range of product and services in the entertainment and media market which has helped it to strengthen its position in the global market.
Warner Media LLC (AT&T) is the third-largest company in the entertainment and media market. The company has its presence in the entertainment and media market through its product offering and services including cable networks, feature film, home video, premium pay television services; & streaming services, television, and videogame production and distribution. The company owns major television network channels including Cinemax, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros, New Line Cinema, CNN, TBS, HBO, and TNT which have enabled it to capture major market share in the television sub sector of the entertainment and media market.
Verizon Communications Inc. currently occupies the fourth spot in the global entertainment market. The company provides a number of services including Digital Media Services, Fios TV Plans, Fios Internet Plans, and Yahoo.com. The company focuses on partnership and acquisition as the key strategies to increase its global presence and market share. It also focuses on innovation and invests in research and development capability. The company’s expertise in providing wireless transmission and Internet service provides it with a competitive edge in the entertainment and media market.
Walt Disney Company has occupied the fifth position in the global entertainment and media market. The company has high level of expertise and experience in the entertainment and media market. The company offers a wide range of services and products including the production of live-action and animated motion pictures, direct-to-video content, musical recordings and live stage plays among others all aimed at the media and entertainment sector which provides it with the competitive edge in the market. The company distributes it films under the Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Touchstone banners which has provided it with strong geographical presence across the globe. The company also offers video streaming products such as Hulu Live TV, Hulu Subscription Services, ESPN+, and Disney+. In 2018, Hulu had around 25 million subscribers. To expand its product portfolio of video streaming, the company acquired Hulu LLC and BAMTech.
Facebook, Inc. is the sixth largest player in the global entertainment and media market. The company has its presence in the entertainment and media market through its social media and messaging platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. The company generates a large portion of its revenue through advertisement and sponsorship. The company’s expertise in the social media space offers it with the competitive edge in the global entertainment and media market. The company engages in collaboration with different companies to increase its global presence. The company acquired Instagram and WhatsApp to broaden its offerings and to increase its geographic reach which will help the company to strengthen its position in the market.
Threat of New Entrants
The entertainment and media market is expected to witness substantial growth during the forecast period. The capital investment for entering the market is high since the entertainment and media industry is mature, and new firms incur high costs to establish a presence and compete with the existing players of the market. Sunk costs are business costs that cannot be recovered; the risk of incurring high sunk costs if a firm exits the market further increases the barriers for the new entrants in the global entertainment and media market. Moreover, the costs required by the firms for brand development and distribution is also high, which further limits the entry of new players into the market. Therefore, the new entrants are expected to present a low threat to the existing competitors in the global entertainment and media market during the forecast period.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
The entertainment and media industry has a large number of suppliers; this makes them have less power over dictating the prices of the products. Moreover, the cost of switching from one supplier to another is moderate. The number of content creators and providers in the entertainment and media industry is high; the increased outsourcing prevent these providers from affecting strategic management decisions of organizations and imposing demands on the key market players due to a number of available sources of content. Therefore, the bargaining power of suppliers is expected to be low in the global entertainment and media market during the review period.
Bargaining Power of Buyers
The low switching cost makes it easy to switch from one player to the other, thus decreasing brand loyalty among consumers. This gives more power to the buyers to dictate the prices in the entertainment and media industry. The price sensitivity of the end users of this market is moderate as fluctuations in the prices of entertainment and media products and services does not have a significant impact on buyers as they have options to switch to online sources of entertainment at a lower cost. This makes the ability of buyers to switch to substitutes easy, which further determines pricing for the company’s offerings. Therefore, the bargaining power of the buyers is expected to be high in the global entertainment and media market during the forecast period.
Threat of Substitutes
The availability of close substitutes for the entertainment and media market is expected to remian moderate. Close substitutes are only present within the sub-segments of the industry, which include e-newspapers for printed newspapers, e-magazines for printed magazines and e-books for printed books. Buyers have a choice to opt for printed or digital media which results in loss of business for printed media enterprises and raises the profitability of digital media providers. The industry has seen a paradigm shift towards digital technologies owing to consumers preference of on-demand and live streaming of events. Key players such as Google LLC and Apple Inc. have transformed video content distribution with the help of digital platforms. Moreover, the variety of content offered by the entertainment and media providers is high and is expected to play a key role in determining the market growth in the coming years.
Intensity of Rivalry
The entertainment and media industry is growing at a significant pace and is expected to attain a higher growth rate in the upcoming years. There are many established firms offering media and entertainment products and services in the market making the competition high. Key players are focused on adopting strategies such as collaboration in order to gain a greater market share to have competitive advantage over other players. Moreover, companies that produce high-quality animated video content and games compete against each other making the industry environment highly competitive.
Market estimates by geography (2030)
InsightNorth America leads with $2.36B by 2030, while Asia Pacific is projected to grow fastest at a 11.5% CAGR.
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View Subscription Plans| REGION | 2014 | 2018 | 2030 | CAGR | SHARE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | $765.90M | $1.13B | $2.36B | 7.3% | 35% |
| Asia Pacific | $370.40M | $723.60M | $2.11B | 11.5% | 31% |
| Europe | $510.50M | $735.70M | $1.58B | 7.3% | 24% |
| Rest of the World | $137.80M | $246.90M | $659.90M | 10.3% | 10% |
| Total | $1.78B | $2.83B | $6.71B | 8.6% | 100% |
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View Subscription PlansTotal Market Size
$6.71B
| APPLICATION | REVENUE ($B) | GROWTH RATE | MARKET PENETRATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wired | $3.86B | 7.9% | 58% |
| Wireless | $2.85B | 9.8% | 42% |
* Revenue projections based on 2025 estimates. Growth rates represent CAGR 2024–2030. Market penetration indicates current adoption rate within addressable market segments.
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Analytical insights on Entertainment and Media Market covering market dynamics, competitive landscape, and strategic outlook.
The Entertainment and Media Market market is projected to reach $6.71B by 2030, growing at 8.6% CAGR. The Wired segment holds the largest share.
Increasing popularity of video games and e-sports and increasing penetration of smartphones are some major factors driving the market growth of media and entertainment. However, piracy is the major restraining factor for the market. On the other hand, development in 5G is expected to develop fruitful opportunity in the market.
The eSports segment of the media and entertainment industry has seen a meteoric rise over the last 10 years. This rise can be attributed to the increasing popularity of video games which are being played across devices such as smartphones, laptops, desktops, and gaming consoles. Tournaments for eSports have also gained increased popularity with prize pools of certain tournaments rivaling some of the biggest events in traditional sports. The total prize pool of Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) International 2018 was USD 25.5 million which exceeded the prize pool of traditional sporting tournaments including the 2018 US Open for golf and the 2018 Tour de France which had prize pools of USD 12 million and USD 2.7 million, respectively. Such events have registered more impressive numbers in terms of viewership such as the 2017 League of Legends (LoL) world championship which drew over 106 million viewers, on par with mega sporting events such as the 2018 Super Bowl. These events have managed to generate large revenues through corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, merchandising, and broadcasting rights. The growth of eSports is further driven by mass media investments from the likes of ESPN, BT Sport, and YouTube.
Professional eSports leagues such as the Overwatch League, Intel Extreme Masters, and League of Legends Masters Series are being developed to further attract audiences and increase investments. There is increasing non-endemic sponsorship from heavy-weights Adidas, VISA, and Pepsi for eSports events as they have managed to capture the millennial demographic which is significant for large sponsors.
Thus, the increasing popularity of eSports is expected to drive the growth of the global entertainment and media market during the forecast period.
The increasing demand for more efficient and faster mobile networks from end users has contributed to the overall demand for 5G network connectivity and its development. Companies such as AT&T and Verizon have opened 5G test sites in cities such as Dallas, Atlanta, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. The 5G technology is expected to be commercially deployed in the US by 2022. Governments in different countries such as India have started various initiatives such as the 5G India Forum (5GIF) to speed up deployment. The rollout of 5G technology is expected to transform the entertainment and media industry completely. It is expected to be 10 times faster than 4G technology which will make the process of downloading videos, audio, and gaming content online almost instantaneous. The technology is also expected to significantly improve user experience across all devices including gaming consoles, mobile phones, laptops, and smart TVs. The deployment of 5G will realize the process of live streaming 4k videos which will benefit both viewers and content streamers in terms of user experience. It will allow more devices to be connected to content delivery networks which will improve the overall process of content delivery. The improved user experience of video streaming platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile gaming platforms due to the rollout of 5G is expected to attract more advertisers, marketers, and brands which presents an opportunity for players in the global entertainment and media market.
Piracy of content has been a serious issue for the entertainment and media industry for a long time. Piracy has affected different segments of the industry ranging from stock photography through music and film to videogames. The increasing commercialization of the Internet has led to an increase in digital piracy in recent years. Easy access to the Internet has enabled individuals to easily pirate copyrighted content as it allows for anonymous communication and provides increased access to the content. The availability of digital content has been one of the biggest causes of piracy around the world. Unavailability of media due to different release dates, region formats, location blocks, rarity and lack of distribution tools has further pushed individuals toward illegally accessing content. These factors, coupled with high costs and user unwillingness to pay for freely available content, has further fueled the rise of piracy of digital media. The inability of ISPs to completely block torrent websites which offer pirated content has further aggravated the losses faced by entertainment and media companies. The piracy of digital content largely hurts the sales of content providers. Hence, the piracy of digital content is expected to hamper the growth of the global entertainment and media market during the forecast period.
Cyber-attacks on online video streaming platforms have become a major concern for the media and entertainment industry. As film production increases, production companies are using cloud and over-the-top (OTT) technologies to deliver content directly to viewers, on virtually any device. As more of the media content is being pushed online, viewing habits are also changing as people are accessing the same video content from multiple devices. Although this change has led to increased business opportunities, it has also created security challenges for media companies. Media content and viewers’ personal data are now being stored together at media data centers which has made it easier for cybercriminals to access such information. The level of sophistication of attacks is increasing which has made it harder for media providers to identify and stop them before they impact their businesses. In 2015, the French TV network TVMonde5 was taken offline for approximately 20 hours by hackers who took control of over 12 live broadcast channels. In 2016, Netflix customers in the UK were the subject of a phishing attack which stole login and payment information.
Apart from breaches of personal customer information, online video streaming platforms are facing losses due to credential sharing and intellectual property theft. Entertainment and media companies have started seeking content protection for the pre-release as well as post-release of content online. Key players have resorted to content delivery network monitoring and digital rights management software tools to protect their content. However, the increased number of cyber-attacks on online video streaming and gaming platforms pose a grave challenge for the growth of the global entertainment and media market.
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Profiles of 110 companies operating in the Entertainment and Media Market market, including revenue, employee count, and market positioning where available.
Showing 110 of 110 companies
Company Headquarters: New York, US Founded: 1986 Workforce: 12,770 Company Working CBS Corporation is a mass media company, which creates and distributes content across a variety of platforms to audiences across the globe. The company operates in every field of media and entertainment including cable, publishing, local TV, film and interactive services. The company operates its business via entertainment, cable networks, publishing, and local media segments. The entertainment segment comprises the CBS Television Network, CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Interactive, and CBS Films as well as the company's digital streaming services, CBS All Access and CBSN. The cable networks consist of CBS Sports Network, Showtime Networks, and Smithsonian Networks. The publishing segment manages the Simon & Schuster's consumer book publishing business under the names of Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, Scribner, and Atria Books. The local media segment consists of CBS Television Stations and CBS Local Digital Media which manages content from local websites and television stations. CBS Corporation majorly operates in the US and Canada.
Company Headquarters: Germany Founded: 1835 Workforce: ~17,377 Company Working: Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA (Bertelsmann) is an education, media, and services company who along with its subsidiaries, engages in television broadcasting, magazine publishing, e-learning, music rights, and services businesses. The operating divisions of the company include RTL Group, Gruner + Jahr, Penguin Random House, BMG, Bertelsmann Printing Group, Bertelsmann Education Group, and Bertelsmann Investments. The RTL Group deals with television broadcasting, the Penguin Random House engages in trade book publishing, Gruner+ Jahr involves in magazine publishing, BMG is the music service provider, Arvato offers SCM, financial, and IT solutions and services to the clients, the Bertelsmann Printing Group deals with printing activities, Bertelsmann Education Group engages in providing education services, and Bertelsmann Investments deals with funds. The company has a presence in more than 50 countries, with major operations in Western European countries such as Germany, France, the UK, and the US.
Company Headquarters: US Founded: 1963 Workforce: ~189,000 Company Working: Comcast Corporation is a media and technology company that provides video, Internet, and phone services to its customers. The company operates through three primary segments: Comcast Cable, Sky, and NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable has one reporting sub-segment, namely, cable communications. NBCUniversal has four reportable sub-segments: broadcast television, cable networks, theme parks, and filmed entertainment. The cable communications segment provides high-speed Internet, video, security and automation, and voice services under Xfinity’s brand name. The cable networks segment covers national cable networks, news networks, regional sports, cable television studio production operations, and international cable networks. The broadcast television sub-segment provides Telemundo broadcast networks and NBC. The theme parks segment comprises Universal theme parks in Orlando, Florida, Hollywood, Osaka, Japan, and California. The filmed entertainment segment consists of production, acquisition, distribution, and marketing of filmed entertainment. The Sky business segment comprises a direct-to-consumer business’s operations, providing video, high-speed Internet, voice, and wireless phone services. The corporate & other segment includes operations of other business such as Comcast Spectacor and wireless phone services. The company has a high presence in the North American and European regions. It is a public company listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange as NASDAQ: CMCSA.
Company Headquarters: California, US Founded: 1923 Workforce: 201,000 Company Working: The Walt Disney Co. is an international family entertainment and media enterprise. It operates through the following business segments: media networks, parks & resorts, studio entertainment, and consumer products and interactive media. The media networks segment comprises cable and broadcast television networks, television production and distribution operations, domestic television stations, radio networks and stations. The parks and resorts segment overlook the operation of the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida; the Disney Vacation Club; Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii; the Disneyland Resort in California; the Disney Cruise Line; and Adventures by Disney. The studio entertainment segment involves the production of live-action and animated motion pictures, direct-to-video content, musical recordings and live stage plays. The film produced are distributed under the Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Touchstone banners. The consumer products and interactive media segment authorizes the company's trade names, characters, and visual and literary properties to the manufacturers, game developers, publishers, and retailers across the globe. This segment also includes published magazines and comic books, games developed primarily for mobile platforms, and distribution of branded merchandise directly via retail, online and wholesale businesses. The company has a wide geographic presence across the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa.
Company Headquarters: US Founded: 2013 Workforce: ~ 28,000 Company Overview: News Corporation (News Corp.) is a media and information services company that focuses on developing and distributing content for consumers and businesses globally. The company operates mainly through four business segments—book publishing, news and information services, digital real estate services, and subscription video services. The company’s news and information services segment cover News Corp Australia, Dow Jones, the New York Post, News UK, and News America Marketing that offers news and information for the consumers. The book publishing segment consists of HarperCollins, a consumer book publisher having operations across 18 countries. In 2018, HarperCollins provided around 100,000 publications in digital formats. The company’s subscription video services segment offers entertainment, sport videos, and news services to subscribers through satellite, cable and internet protocol (IP). The company delivers its content through several distribution platforms including traditional platforms such as television and print and through digital platforms including websites, social media platforms, e-books, and applications for mobile devices.
Verizon is the incumbent premium-network operator of the United States telecommunications market and, by wireless retail connections, its largest. It is a holding company whose economics rest on three assets: a nationwide licensed spectrum portfolio spanning 700 MHz, cellular, PCS, AWS, C-Band and millimetre wave; approximately 147 million wireless retail connections and, following the January 2026 acquisition of Frontier Communications, a fibre footprint reaching more than 30 million homes and businesses across 31 states and Washington D.C.; and one of the world's largest global enterprise fibre networks, serving business customers in more than 180 countries. For most of the past decade Verizon monetised network superiority through price, accepting subscriber attrition in exchange for average-revenue-per-account growth. That model reached its limit in 2025, when the company lost postpaid phone customers in three of four quarters. Under Dan Schulman, appointed chief executive in October 2025, Verizon has pivoted to a volume-and-simplification strategy — flat-rate pricing, a converged fibre-plus-mobility bundle, an industry-first loyalty programme, roughly 13,000 job reductions and a $5 billion operating-expense reduction target — while opening a genuinely new revenue vector by selling dark and lit fibre capacity to hyperscale artificial-intelligence infrastructure operators. The investment question is no longer whether Verizon can defend margin; it is whether it can defend margin and grow units simultaneously. The FY2021 figure (approximately 118,400, of which roughly 89% were US-based) and the FY2025 figure (approximately 89,900) are taken directly from the respective Forms 10-K. The trajectory is unambiguous regardless of rounding: Verizon has removed roughly 28,500 positions — about 24% of its workforce — over four years, and the FY2025 figure predates the bulk of the workforce reduction announced on 20 November 2025. --- ### The company's own characterisation In the FY2025 Form 10-K, Verizon describes itself as a holding company that, acting through its subsidiaries, is one of the world's leading providers of communications, technology, information and streaming products and services to consumers, businesses and government entities. It states that it has a presence around the world and offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its networks and platforms, designed to meet customer demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity and security. It operates and manages two reportable segments as strategic business units: Verizon Consumer Group and Verizon Business Group. ### Independent characterisation Verizon is fundamentally a capital-intensive subscription utility wrapped around a spectrum and fibre asset base, with a declining hardware-resale business attached to it and an emergent infrastructure-wholesale business bolted on top. **Revenue model composition.** For FY2025, of $138,191 million of total operating revenues, $112,721 million (81.6%) came from service and other revenues and $25,470 million (18.4%) from wireless equipment sales (FY2025 Form 10-K income statement). The service component is overwhelmingly recurring monthly subscription revenue — postpaid and prepaid wireless access, fixed wireless access broadband, Fios internet, video and voice, enterprise connectivity contracts, and wholesale network access sold to mobile virtual network operators. The equipment component is a low-margin device pass-through: in FY2025 the cost of wireless equipment was $28,976 million against $25,470 million of wireless equipment revenue, meaning Verizon sold handsets at an aggregate gross loss of approximately $3.5 billion. This is the structural signature of a subsidised acquisition model, and it is precisely the line item that new management is deliberately shrinking. In 2Q26, equipment revenue fell nearly 20%, or more than $1.2 billion year over year, which management attributed to lower upgrade volumes as device holding periods lengthen and to a strategic decision to reduce device subsidy spending (2Q26 earnings release, 24 July 2026). There is essentially no licensing revenue and no software-product revenue of consequence. Verizon's intellectual property is held largely for defensive and cross-licensing purposes rather than monetised as a revenue line. **Value chain position.** Verizon sits at the network layer. It buys spectrum licences from the FCC and secondary-market sellers; buys radio access network, transport and core equipment from Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Ciena, Corning and others; buys handsets from Apple, Samsung and Google for resale; builds and operates the physical network; and sells connectivity directly to end customers and wholesale to resellers. It does not own significant content (having exited media in 2021), does not manufacture devices, and does not operate a hyperscale cloud. Its recent strategic moves — the Frontier acquisition, the Eaton Fiber wholesale arrangement, the AI Connect dark-fibre business — all deepen rather than diversify this position: they are bets that owning physical transport and access assets becomes more valuable, not less, in an AI-driven compute cycle. **Customer types.** (i) Individual consumers and households, served postpaid under the Verizon brand and prepaid under Verizon Value brands; (ii) small and medium businesses; (iii) large enterprises and multinational corporations; (iv) US federal, state and local government agencies and educational institutions, plus more than 40,000 public safety agencies (per a January 2026 US House Homeland Security Committee letter); (v) wholesale counterparties, including cable operators reselling Verizon's network as MVNOs — most importantly Comcast and Charter, whose long-term MVNO agreement Verizon amended and extended in January 2026; and (vi), newly, hyperscale data-centre operators buying fibre capacity. **End markets.** Consumer mobility and home broadband; enterprise and public-sector connectivity, managed networking and security; wholesale carrier transport; IoT and connected fleet; and AI infrastructure connectivity. **Distribution.** Verizon uses direct channels (company-operated stores, sales and service centres, business direct sales teams, digital and omni-channel), indirect channels (exclusive agents, national retailers, convenience-store chains for prepaid), and, for Business, resellers, distributors and systems integrators. In November 2025 the company announced it would convert 179 corporate-owned retail stores to franchised operations and close one — a deliberate shift of fixed retail cost off balance sheet.
5 interactive charts drawn from the Entertainment and Media Market dataset — market size, regional splits and each segment breakdown. Open one to read its full data table and download it.
Global Entertainment and Media Market Middle East And Africa and South America Of Rest Of The World By Region
Global Entertainment and Media Market Germany, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Russian Federation and Rest Of Europe By Country
Global Entertainment and Media Market Australia, China, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea and Rest Of Asia Pacific By Country
Global Entertainment and Media Market United States, Canada and Mexico Of North America By Country
Global Entertainment and Media Market By Region
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Historical performance and future projections (2020–2030, USD Billion)
Market Size (USD Mn)
