Media

In 2023, the value of the media and entertainment market reached 2.83 trillion U.S. dollars, experiencing a growth of five percent compared to 2022. In the following years the growth is set to slow down, but dollar figures are expected reach 3.4 trillion by the end of 2028. 

Entertainment and media market revenue – additional information

The entertainment and media market encompasses every broadcasting medium from newspapers, magazines, TV and radio and popular forms of entertainment such as film, music and books.

The compound annual growth rate of the entertainment and media spending worldwide has been predicted between 2022 and 2026, by sector. Projections indicated that the sector which will see the most compound annual growth rate will be data consumption, at 26 percent, followed by virtual reality, which will grow by 24 percent during the stated time. In comparison, newspapers and magazines publishing is expected to shrink on an annual basis by two percent in the same period.

In 2024, the number of online music subscribers reached 752 million, up from 667 million in the previous year. Similarly, subscription streaming keeps growing in revenue, and accounted for the vast majority of the global market.

As of March 2024, "Avatar" (2009) was the most commercially successful movie of all time, grossing about 2.92 billion U.S. dollars at box offices across the globe. "Avengers: Endgame" (2019) and "Avatar: The Way of Water " (2022) followed, with revenues of around 2.8 billion and 2.32 billion dollars, respectively.

Franchises and the pandemic impact In 2021, worldwide box office revenue grew by over 80 percent and reached 21.3 billion dollars. Yet the figure amounts to less than 51 percent of the value recorded in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak. Yet the success of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" (2021) suggests that the performance of major movie franchises at the box office may continue strong in a post-pandemic scenario. The format, which includes cases like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars, has been a safe bet for Hollywood as it tends to pursue fans already interested in films part of consolidated brands.

U.S. & Canada as a movie market Moviegoers in Canada and the U.S. usually turn to the largest players of this industry. North American cinema circuits such as AMC, Cineworld, Cinemark, and Cineplex have over 1.5 thousand sites spread across the two countries. Historically, movie genres like adventure and action attract most of the audience in the U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, niches such as horror, romantic comedy (romcoms), and musicals rely largely on the most enthusiastic fans of each segment.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Disney+ Core, excluding India's Disney+ Hotstar, reportedly generated an average monthly revenue of 7.18 U.S. dollars per paying subscriber worldwide, marking an increase from the previous quarter of the same year. This drop is significant, given Disney's recent struggles to reach positive profits with its streaming division.

In contrast to Disney’s direct-to-consumer business reporting losses, competitors like Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery's DTC segment have managed to achieve operating profits. Furthermore, Disney+ has faced the challenge of retaining customers recently, and particularly the Indian brand Disney+ Hotstar experienced a decline in subscribers in the company's first two fiscal quarters of 2023.

Despite this, Disney+ has emerged as a formidable contender in the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) landscape, fueled by its vast range of content from Disney’s various subsidiaries, including Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, Pixar, and Marvel Entertainment, making it appealing to audiences of all ages. The availability of popular original series like "Moon Knight" and "Obi-Wan Kenobi" exclusively available on Disney+ has further solidified its position as a leading player in the streaming arena. 

Netflix's global subscriber base has reached an impressive milestone, surpassing 300 million paid subscribers worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2024. This marks a significant increase of nearly 20 million subscribers compared to the previous quarter, solidifying Netflix's position as a dominant force in the streaming industry. 

Netflix's growth has not always been consistent. During the first half of 2022, the streaming giant lost over one million customers. In response to these losses, Netflix introduced an ad-supported tier in November of that same year. This strategic move has paid off, with the lower-cost plan attracting 70 million monthly active users globally by November 2024, demonstrating Netflix's ability to adapt to changing market conditions and consumer preferences.

Netflix continues to focus on international markets, with a forecast suggesting that the Asia Pacific region is expected to see the most substantial growth in the upcoming years, potentially reaching around 70.1 million subscribers by 2029. To correspond to the needs of the non-American target group, the company has heavily invested in international content in recent years, with Korean, Spanish, and Japanese being the most watched non-English content languages on the platform.

The reach in terms of listeners in the 'Podcasts' segment of the advertising market in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 37.2 million users (+48.7 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the reach in terms of listeners is estimated to reach 113.62 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the reach in terms of listeners of the 'Podcasts' segment of the advertising market was continuously increasing over the past years.

Find more in-depth information regarding the number of users concerning the OTT video segment of the media market worldwide and the revenue growth concerning the traditional TV & home video segment of the media market in Poland.

The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Over-the-top (OTT) TV and video revenue is expected to reach 215 billion U.S. dollars by 2029, more than double the figure reported in 2019. The market has experienced massive growth over the past years.

Over-the-top providers The term ‘over-the-top' is used to describe internet-based services that allow users to stream media content over the internet without the need for cable or satellite subscriptions. In the United States alone the penetration rate of OTT amounted to over 80 percent in 2022, with many of the most popular services in the market being video-on-demand platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Disney+. Netflix has more than 240 million paying subscribers worldwide making it the biggest OTT video provider in the world.

OTT - a lucrative market for advertisers U.S.-based CTV users spent in total over nine million hours with OTT services as of February 2022, and as they begin to replace traditional media such as television, the platform has become beneficial for both consumers and advertisers. Not only are OTT users more receptive to advertisement than TV viewers, but the platforms themselves allow advertisers to better target their ads to specific demographics or types of consumers that are more likely to be interested in their products or services.

According to a survey conducted in the second quarter of 2022, global internet users aged between 16 and 24 spent two hours and 53 minutes with social media per day. At the same time they also spent one hour and 23 minutes with games consoles. Social media was the most time consuming media pastime for age groups 16 to 44, while internet user older than that spent more of their time watching linear TV.

In 2024, online media worldwide had an inflation rate of 4.6 percent, while offline media saw an inflation rate of four percent at the same time. In total, global media had an inflation rate of 4.3 percent in 2024.

The global penetration rate in the 'Mobile Games' segment of the media market was forecast to continuously increase between 2025 and 2029 by in total 3.1 percentage points. After the seventh consecutive increasing year, the penetration rate is estimated to reach 29.77 percent and therefore a new peak in 2029.