Disney Investors Just Got Really Bad News from Alphabet

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agelong been a touchstone of popular civilization successful the U.S. and astir the world. For much than 100 years, the institution has been the go-to for audiences, supplying generations of fans with animation, movies, cablegram and broadcast television, taxable parks, cruise ships, merchandise, and more. In fact, for years, the institution has held the rubric of world's largest media company.

In a spot of bittersweet news, reports suggest the institution has relinquished its crown.

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Analysts astatine MoffettNathanson person crunched the numbers and concluded that Alphabet's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube has go the world's largest media institution by revenue, but those claims necessitate a spot of inheritance and context.

In 2025, Disney reported full gross of $94.4 billion. Excluding income from its Experiences conception -- which includes resorts, taxable parks, and cruises -- media gross from its amusement and sports segments clocked successful astatine $60.1 billion.

YouTube, for its part, has agelong been the world's largest online video-sharing platform. Users tin upload, share, and remark connected a wide assortment of videos, including acquisition content, euphony videos, children's programming, feline videos, and more. Viewership has been connected the emergence for years, with audiences watching much than 1 cardinal hours of contented each day. Creators marque wealth by generating fashionable contented that is supported by advertising.

During the 4th quarter, YouTube deed a caller benchmark, arsenic gross from advertizing and subscriptions surpassed $60 cardinal successful 2025. Moreover, the institution Alphabet noted that beardown adoption of Google One and YouTube Premium drove paid subscribers supra 325 million. YouTube generated astir $40.4 cardinal successful advertisement gross past year, truthful the remaining gross of astir $20 cardinal was subscription revenue.

So is YouTube the world's largest media company? That depends. MoffettNathanson estimated YouTube's gross astatine $62 cardinal past year, edging retired Disney's $60 billion. That said, if YouTube hasn't outpaced Disney yet, it apt soon will.

What does this mean for Disney shareholders? Unfortunately, this is portion of a semipermanent inclination successful the media space. Broadcast and cablegram tv are losing crushed to streaming services, and Disney's linear networks person been successful secular decline, a resistance connected the company's results successful caller years. Management responded by acquiring Hulu and launching Disney+, but the bulk of its gross inactive comes from its bequest media businesses.