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Disney has kept the top spot in valuation and strategy consultant Brand Finance’s list of the 25 most valuable media brands.
With a brand value of $32.6 billion, Disney far outpaces its closest competition, #2 Fox ($17.0 billion) and #3 NBC ($14.9 billion). That gap is almost certain to grow, according to Brand Finance, as Disney’s recent purchase of a majority stake in 21st Century Fox will give it access to the audiences served by Star India, which reaches 150 million households, and the British-owned Sky.
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Rounding out the top 10 brands are Universal, CBS, ABC, Warner Bros., ESPN and Thompson Reuters. The fastest growing brand on the list was France’s Canal+, which saw its brand value rise from $1.7 billion to $2.4 billion, a jump of 41 percent.
One of the major takeaways of the list is that the U.S. is still king of the hill when it comes to media brands. Nine of the top 10 brands are based in America (the only exception being #8 BBC) and only seven brands on the top 25 list are from other countries. In addition, U.S. brands account for 86 percent of the total valuation of the top 25.
However, Brand Finance CEO David Haigh stresses the importance of emerging markets to brand success, regardless of where the brand is based. “Chinese and Indian markets grow exponentially and brands which understand that make the most of the boom,” he says.
The Brand Finance figures define brand value as the net economic benefit a brand owner would gain by licensing that brand.
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