Liberty Media Tops Profitability Ranking

NEW YORK: Liberty Media Corp. was the most profitable U.S. media and entertainment company in 2013, according to newly released rankings by SNL Kagan, followed by 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company.

Liberty Global's 2013 profit was just under $9 billion, with its results surging largely as a result of its takeover of Sirius XM Holdings Inc. Second on the rankings was 21st Century Fox at $7.3 billion in net income, ahead of Disney, last year's most profitable media company, at $6.6 billion. Fourth in the SNL Kagan rankings was Time Warner with a $3.7 billion net income, followed by Viacom at $2.4 billion. CBS Corp. was sixth on the ranking at $1.8 billion and Discovery ninth at $1.1 billion. Also in the top ten was Scripps Networks Interactive with a 2013 profit of $683 million.

By operating revenues, meanwhile, Disney comes out on top at $45 billion, well ahead of Time Warner's $30 billion and Fox's $28 billion.