---
type: source
title: "PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025-2029: $2.9T Industry, Growing to $3.5T"
author: "PwC"
url: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2025/pwc-global-entertainment-media-outlook.html
date: 2025-06-01
domain: entertainment
secondary_domains: []
format: report
status: processed
processed_by: clay
processed_date: 2026-04-25
priority: high
tags: [media-industry, total-revenue, streaming, theatrical, market-size, pwc]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025-2029 provides the authoritative total industry size:

- Total global E&M revenue: $2.9 trillion (2024), growing at 3.7% CAGR
- Projected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2029
- SVOD + AVOD streaming: $165 billion globally (2025)
- Traditional television (cable distribution + advertising): $114.9 billion (2025), down from $155.9B in 2019
- Theatrical box office: $9.9 billion (2025), down from $11.7B in 2019

Major streaming revenue (2025):
- Netflix: $33.7B (streaming revenue)
- Disney streaming (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+): $23.3B
- WBD (Max): $10.3B
- Paramount+: $7.6B
- Peacock: $4.9B
- Combined major streaming services: ~$80B

Creator economy as share of total: ~$250B / $2.9T = ~8.6% of total E&M in 2025.

Key trajectory: if creator economy grows 25%/year and total E&M grows 3.7%/year, by 2034:
- Creator economy: $250B × (1.25)^9 ≈ $1.86T
- Total E&M: $2.9T × (1.037)^9 ≈ $4.1T
Creator economy still well below total E&M by 2035 on these trajectories.

BUT: for content-specific corporate revenue (stripping cable infrastructure, theme parks, gaming), the comparison is closer. Studio content revenue (theatrical $9.9B + studio streaming $80B + linear TV content) is roughly $200-250B — comparable to creator economy today.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** This is the crucial context for scoping the "creator media economy will exceed corporate media revenue by 2035" position. The position is ALREADY TRUE for ad-specific revenue (YouTube $40.4B > studio ad revenue $37.8B). It is NOT TRUE and probably not achievable by 2035 for TOTAL E&M revenue ($2.9T). The interesting question is whether it's achievable for content-SPECIFIC corporate media revenue (stripping infrastructure).

**What surprised me:** Traditional TV revenue at $114.9B in 2025 (down from $155.9B in 2019) is still far larger than theatrical. Cable is still a huge revenue pool even as it declines. This means the "zero-sum" reallocation from traditional media to creator economy has much further to run — the cable revenue pool is still enormous and still declining.

**What I expected but didn't find:** A breakdown of total media revenue into "content" vs "distribution/infrastructure" categories. The $2.9T includes cable system operator revenue, theme parks, gaming, etc. — stripping these would give the most meaningful comparison to creator economy which is purely content/creator.

**KB connections:**
- [[creator and corporate media economies are zero-sum because total media time is stagnant and every marginal hour shifts between them]] — the $2.9T total provides the denominator for the zero-sum claim
- [[streaming churn may be permanently uneconomic because maintenance marketing consumes up to half of average revenue per user]] — streaming at $80B combined but most losing money or barely profitable confirms the economics concern
- [[media disruption follows two sequential phases as distribution moats fall first and creation moats fall second]] — traditional TV at $114.9B (down from $155.9B) is the second-phase disruption target

**Extraction hints:** The most useful claim would be a precise scope definition for "corporate media revenue" in the creator economy crossover comparison. The current KB claim conflates multiple revenue definitions.

**Context:** PwC's annual outlook is the standard industry reference for global E&M revenue. The 3.7% CAGR vs creator economy's 25% growth rate is the core slope data for disruption timing.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[creator and corporate media economies are zero-sum because total media time is stagnant and every marginal hour shifts between them]]
WHY ARCHIVED: The PwC data gives the authoritative denominator ($2.9T total E&M) that makes the creator economy crossover calculation possible and reveals the 2035 position may need scoping. The $2.9T is growing, not stagnant, which also challenges the "stagnant total media time" framing in the zero-sum claim.
EXTRACTION HINT: Extract a claim about the crossover timing specifically: ad revenue crossover already happened (2025); content-specific revenue crossover in the 2030s; total E&M crossover likely post-2035. Three distinct claims about three distinct metrics.
