Which 5 companies control 90% of US media, and does traditional media have any value with younger people?

The 5 (formerly 6) that own almost everything

In 1983, 50 companies controlled 90% of American media. By 2012, that number had shrunk to six. Today it's down to five: Comcast, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount (now merged with Skydance), and Amazon. If a pending Paramount–WBD merger closes, it will be four.

Here is what each one actually owns, so you understand why the number matters:

• Comcast: NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Universal Pictures, Sky, Peacock
• Walt Disney: ABC, ESPN, Hulu, FX, National Geographic, Disney+
• Warner Bros. Discovery: CNN, HBO/Max, TNT, TBS, Discovery channels
• Paramount/Skydance: CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, Paramount+
• Amazon: MGM, Prime Video, Twitch, The Washington Post (owned by founder Jeff Bezos)

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 dismantled decades of media ownership limits, unleashing the wave of consolidation that made this possible. Media consolidation has only increased since and threatens to eliminate smaller journalists, local news, and alternative perspectives.

One more layer worth knowing: the raw corporate count understates what's happening. A FAIR analysis of Press Gazette traffic data found that 55.9% of all US news site visits went to outlets controlled by just 7 families or corporate entities. The names behind the names, Rupert Murdoch (Fox, News Corp), Bezos, Elon Musk (owner of X, which has become a dominant news distribution layer), and Mark Zuckerberg (Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram), arguably shape what you see as much as the corporate ownership chart does.

What younger people actually do

Traditional media isn't dead with younger audiences. It's just been demoted.

Young news consumers under 35 are increasingly turning to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to get their news, and there has been a marked decline in direct visits to traditional news websites and apps among this demographic. Only 21% say TV is their main source of news, a percentage 7 points lower than 10 years ago.

Only 14% of Gen Z watch more than 2 hours of live TV daily, and just 6% will pay for news or magazine subscriptions, compared with 81% who will pay for streaming video.

But write off traditional media entirely and you miss something important. These generations still rely heavily on traditional sources: fully 74% of Gen Z and Millennials consume news and information at least weekly from traditional outlets, and 45% do so daily. They just don't go looking for it the old way.

TikTok leads as the primary news source for Gen Z (25%), ahead of traditional news apps (17%), while Instagram also ranks highly (15%). And what they want from whoever delivers the news is different: young adults are more likely to pay attention to news creators on social media than follow traditional news brands, 51% vs 39%.

Traditional news media are still valued by young people who search for reliable and objective content, but the packaging has to change. Young people have moved toward visual platforms and have a different understanding of what news should be, with a taste for authenticity, experimentation, and a personal touch.

What this means if you're building anything

The consolidation story and the Gen Z story are connected. When 5 companies own the pipes, independent voices get squeezed out of traditional distribution. That's exactly why creators who build direct relationships with their audiences on platforms like YouTube, podcasts, and social media are the ones gaining ground with younger people. The audience hasn't left. It just moved somewhere the gatekeepers don't fully control yet.