Netflix Falls In The Ranks After Subscriber Loss, Disney Climbs To No. 2

Three years after leaping 169 spots on Forbes’ ranking of the world’s largest companies as a leader in the streaming revolution, Netflix is going back to the drawing board.

The granddaddy of streaming lands at No. 240 on the Global 2000, 21 spots lower than last year’s list, as the media industry continues to look to its latest announcements as a sign of caution.

Since last month, Netflix has reported its first subscriber loss–200,000 in the first quarter and an estimated two million more in the coming months–in more than a decade, gone back on its word that commercials would never be seen on the platform and told employees that it could introduce a lower-priced ad-supported tier by the end of the year. Netflix’s shares plunged over 35% in the aftermath of its first quarter earnings report with Wall Street analysts warning that its plan to revive subscriber growth is likely to take years.

As it competes with content giants that offer more fan-favorite franchises at lower price points, Netflix stands as the fourth largest media company after Comcast (No. 32), Disney (No. 94) and Charter Communications (No. 125).

Forbes compiles our Global 2000 list using data from FactSet Research data to screen for the biggest public companies in four metrics: sales, profits, assets and market value. Our market value calculation is as of April 22 closing prices and includes all common shares outstanding.

Comcast, the reigning largest media company for several consecutive years thanks to its steady cable and broadcast revenues and its growing Peacock platform–with 13 million paid subscribers and 28 million monthly active users–is doubling down on its streaming technology. The telecom behemoth announced a new joint venture with Charter Communications on April 27 that will make Xfinity Flex streaming hardware available to broadband subscribers of both companies. Comcast will license its Flex and Xumo streaming services to the venture and Charter will invest $900 million over multiple years.

Meanwhile, Disney–which rose three spots in the media rankings since last year–plans to boost its offerings on services Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+. According to its annual report, the company is raising its content budget for the fiscal year 2022 by $8 billion to a total of $33 billion, which is double what Netflix spent last year.

Aside from those battling it out at the top, the rest of the largest media companies include Paramount, formerly ViacomCBS, (No. 352) in fifth, South Africa’s Napsers (No. 444) in sixth, Dish Network (No. 509) in seventh and Warner Bros. Discovery (No. 612) in ninth. Europe has a bigger footprint on the media list than last year, with UK-based telecommunications company Liberty Global (No. 583) taking the eighth slot and French advertising and public relations company Publicis Groupe (No. 707) ranked tenth.

Check out the details of the top 20 largest media companies below: