Methodology

The 100 companies in this ranking have been selected based on their UK Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes, as defined by their registration at Companies House. The UK SIC 2007 codes covered by this report are:

• 581 - publishing of books, periodicals and other publishing activities
• 59 - motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities
• 60 - programming and broadcasting activities (includes radio and TV)
• 731 – advertising

We have also included companies whose SIC code is not shown in the list above, but who we believe are part of the UK media industry, due to their close interrelationship with the other companies in our ranking, or because their major competitors are included in our definitions. The most notable examples are Thomson Reuters, Google and Facebook, who we believe play a crucial role in the media and entertainment industry today.

The data covers media and entertainment companies who are registered in the UK and their position in the ranking is based purely on revenue that is recognised within these entities. This approach provides us with a consistent basis on which to rank companies, but it does mean that some large, global media and entertainment organisations with a UK presence may be excluded because revenues generated in the UK exist within a company that is registered elsewhere. Conversely, some UK entities recognise all of their global revenue in their UK-based company, or present group accounts that consolidate the revenues of all their international operations.

We note that some SIC codes may describe a company’s historical categorisation, but not reflect current scope. For example, an advertising company may have diversified into a range of adjacent sectors.