60-Plus Percent of Euro Content Revenues Generated by 12 Companies

STRASBOURG: Europe's top 12 media companies accounted for 62 percent of the region's content revenues last year, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory.

There are 12 companies from the continent in the Observatory's Yearbook 2015 ranking of the world's top 50 media companies based on audiovisual revenues. The Observatory notes that five of the top 12 European companies are public broadcasters: ARD, BBC, France Télévisions, RAI and ZDF. Sky is the sole European entry in the top ten (it's ranked as the ninth-largest company.)

"Over the last five years, worldwide, the cumulated turnover of the leading audiovisual companies has tended to increase faster than the market itself, due to a continuous trend toward consolidation in the USA," the report notes. "In Europe, and even more so in Japan, the leading companies grew slower as this concentration process did not take place, with the notable exception of the full takeover of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland by Sky."

Comcast is ranked as the largest media company by audiovisual revenues. There were a total of 27 U.S. companies in the top 50 list.