Entertainment Conglomerates

Delivered March 17th, 2018. Contributors: Victoria P., Gaurav R., Shannon L., Alexandra Y., Justin B. and

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Viacom Companies: Employee Count: Part 1

According to the three main sources (LinkedIn, Owler, and Crunchbase) that we utilized in our search for the employee counts of five Viacom companies (BET, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Viacom Media Networks, and Bellator MMA), the smallest company under Viacom is Bellator MMA with around 106 employees and the largest company is Viacom Media Networks with around 10,750 or more employees. BET (Black Entertainment Television) has around 922 employees and Nickelodeon has around 2,720 employees. Paramount Pictures and Paramount Television was discovered to be the same company, with around 2,324 employees. We have updated this spreadsheet with the names of the Viacom companies, their employee counts, applicable notes, and sources.

METHODOLOGY
We mainly relied on LinkedIn and Crunchbase when conducting our search for employee counts of these Viacom Companies: BET, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Viacom Media Networks, and Bellator MMA. We also referred to Owler and a few other sources to confirm certain information. We found that the employee counts given for each company did not always match, but most were close approximations so in these cases we used the average figure between the two or three sources and added the far-off figure in Column D. When searching on LinkedIn, we applied appropriate filters in order to bring up the employees that have registered on the website for each company; for example, "Current Companies: BET Networks and BET digital" and "Current Companies: Nickelodeon and Nickelodeon animation". Crunchbase gave a range which confirmed the numbers given on LinkedIn — such as for Nickelodeon, where LinkedIn returns 2,720 employees and Crunchbase estimates between 1,001-5,000 employees. Also, according to Owler, Nickelodeon has 11,949 employees which seem to be an overestimation as it is way more than the numbers returned by LinkedIn and Crunchbase.

In searching for Paramount Television, we found that it is the same company as Paramount Pictures so we placed them together. Based on this 2013 report, Paramount announced it will be eliminating 110 positions, slicing 5% of its workforce of 2,200. We used this source because we assume their employee count has increased since then and want to reflect that as the LinkedIn and Owler figures are conflicting.

Viacom Media Networks (VMN) is made up of a bunch of smaller brands, which may explain its large employee count (10,750 according to two sources, one of which predicts a growth of 16%). LinkedIn returned only 6,329 employees for VMN; we assume this is an underestimation. VMN brands are divided into three groups: BET Networks, including BET and Centric; the Music and Entertainment Group, which includes MTV, Comedy Central, Spike, TV Land, CMT, Logo and VH1; and the Nickelodeon Group, which includes Nickelodeon and its related brands.

CONCLUSION
The employee counts for five Viacom companies (BET, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Viacom Media Networks, and Bellator MMA) are between 100 to 10,750. Further details are found on the spreadsheet.

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Viacom Companies: Employee Count: Part 2

VH1 and Paramount Animation (previously known as Famous Studios) are smaller subsidiaries of Viacom employing less than 500 people. CMT (Country Music Television), Comedy Central, MTV, and Viacom International are larger with employment estimates of between 500 and 5000 people. We’ve included all information in the attached spreadsheet as requested, but please find a summary of our findings below.
FINDINGS
We searched public databases and company records for the specified subdivisions of Time Warner to find pre-compiled employment estimates for each company. Several reputable sites like Hired, LinkedIn, Owler, Crunchbase, and Data were consulted to find employee estimates, as no official employee counts were published by Viacom themselves in the public domain.

Connect's platform states that CMT (Country Music Television) has 250-1000 employees and Linkedin shows 807 CMT employees, and Viacom International's profile on Hired.com states that it has 1400 employees; whereas, Linkedin shows them having 1261 employees on its platform. For MTV, we found a 2008 article talking about them having 5000 employees and MTV's Linkedin page shows them having 1002 employees. Famous studios is now known as Paramount Animation; therefore, we have provided the number of employees for Paramount Animation. They have 28 employees on Linkedin. 

VH1 has 404 employees on Linkedin; whereas VH1's Owler profile shows that they have 10 employees. Due to such a huge discrepancy between Linkedin figures and Owler figures, we can't rely on a number of employees provided by Owler. For Comedy Central, Linkedin shows them having 864 employees on its platform; whereas, Comedy Central's Crunchbase profile shows that they 1-10 employees. Hence, we can't rely on the CrunchBase figures for Comedy Central. Linkedin figures are also estimated figures based on the number of employees from a respective organization having Linked profiles. While Linkedin figures are still only an estimate, it is more reliable than the Owler and Crunchbase estimates for VH1 and Comedy Central as Linkedin provides proof by showing the listing of VH1 and Comedy Central employees against the number of employees listed. 
CONCLUSION
Please see the attached spreadsheet.

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Comcast NBC Universal Companies: Employee Count: Part 1

Based on our research, Comcast Corporation Holdings has between 40,000 and 100,000 employees, the Philadelphia Flyers have between 177 and 191 employees, NBC Entertainment has approximately 77 employees, NBC News has approximately 4,476 employees, and CNBC has about 2,350 employees. According to an SEC filing, NBC Broadcasting does not appear to be a subsidiary of Comcast NBC Universal, but LinkedIn page for the National Broadcasting Company put the employee count at around 78. The information for each subsidiary has been entered into rows 8-13 on the attached spreadsheet. Below is my methodology and an overview of my findings.
MethodologyIn order to research an estimated number of employees for the Comcast NBC Universal Subsidiaries of Comcast Holdings Corporation, Philadelphia Flyers, NBC Broadcasting, NBC Entertainment, NBC News, and CNBC, I did a deep dive on division and subsidiary websites, as well as on news articles containing company employee information. If information on the number of employees was not available from those sources, I searched LinkedIn and Owler to get an approximate employee count. 
NotesI was able to find LinkedIn employee counts for all subsidiaries except NBC Broadcasting. However, it is important to note that employee registration on LinkedIn is voluntary. As a result, current employees may not be registered, or some employees may still be listed as working at a particular company, but have left and not updated their information.

Likewise, I used Owler to find secondary employee counts for NBC News and CNBC, but there is such a discrepancy between Owler numbers and LinkedIn numbers, that I feel Owler's employee counts have been under-reported. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any media mentions, website descriptions, or SEC filings that provided more accurate numbers for these two subsidiaries.

The Philadelphia Flyers have listed most, if not all, its employees on its website. Therefore, I used LinkedIn to determine a baseline number, but the website indicates there may be about 14 fewer employees than listed on LinkedIn.

NBC Broadcasting does not have a LinkedIn page separate from NBC Universal. There is no Owler page for NBC Broadcasting, nor have there been any media mentions of NBC Broadcasting that indicate employee numbers. I was able to unearth an SEC filing of all subsidiaries of NBC Universal, and NBC Broadcasting is not mentioned as being a subsidiary. However, a LinkedIn page for the National Broadcasting Corporation, which is NBC but not NBC Universal pins the employee count at about 78. Unfortunately, there were no other media mentions, website descriptions, or SEC filings that verify this number. Again, this is possibly due to the fact that NBC Broadcasting is not actually a subsidiary of Comcast NBC Universal.
ConclusionOf Comcast Holdings Corporation, Philadelphia Flyers, NBC Broadcasting, NBC Entertainment, NBC News, and CNBC, Comcast Holdings Corporation has by far the most employees with between 40,000 and 100,000, with the 100,000 number more likely to be accurate, since LinkedIn may not include all employees. The details for the subsidiary employee counts can be found on the attached spreadsheet.

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Comcast NBC Universal Companies: Employee Count: Part 2

Based on our research, MSNBC has between 501 and 1,000 employees, The Weather Channel has between 201 and 1,095 employees, E! Entertainment Television has between 1,001 and 5,000 employees, Oxygen Media has between 201 and 500 employees, Universal Kids has between 51 and 200 employees, and USA Network has between 501 and 1,000 employees. Details regarding each subsidiary can be found in this spreadsheet. 
MethodologyIn order to find the most accurate employee estimate, we first did a thorough search of each company's website. We were unable to find any mention of number of employees on any of the websites for MSNBC, The Weather Channel, E! Entertainment Television, Oxygen Media, Universal Kids and USA Network, so we turned to LinkedIn. We were able to find a range of employee counts that are set by the companies on LinkedIn. We then checked any known databases that might have this type of information and were able to find alternative employee counts for some companies. In the cases where the alternative employee counts seem much higher or lower than the LinkedIn count, we have noted that in the spreadsheet. We have also noted any cases where the company has set a range on LinkedIn, yet they have many more employees that have a LinkedIn and list the company as their current employer, which may indicate they haven't updated their employee range in a while. 
RESULTSWe were able to find the most accurate estimate of employee counts on LinkedIn for each company. Please note that we have gone by the range set by the company itself, as registration for LinkedIn is voluntary so the number of registered employees does not usually reflect the actual number of employees. The only exception to this that we found was The Weather Channel. They list 201-500 as their employee range, but have 889 registered LinkedIn members that list The Weather Channel as their current employer. There are likely some members that do not work there any longer and have simply not updated their LinkedIn; however, a difference of almost 400 people is a lot and may indicate that The Weather Channel has not updated its employee range. Owler shows an estimated count of 1,095 for The Weather Channel, which supports this assumption.

 Owler and Crunchbase were the two databases that brought up an alternative employee count for some companies. We found numbers for MSNBC, The Weather Channel, and Oxygen Media on Owler. We found numbers for MSNBC and Oxgen Media on Crunchbase. 

USA Network did not have any sort of employee count on their website. They may have a LinkedIn account, as we have found one that lists their name and their business category as broadcast media, however it links to a different site and is very bare compared to the other companies' sites. We cannot be sure that this is their official LinkedIn, but because of the name and business category we have included it.
ConclusionOf the requested companies, E! Entertainment Television has the most employees with a range of 1,001-5,000. Universal Kids has the least amount of employees, with a range of 51-200. Details regarding each company can be found in this spreadsheet.

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Comcast NBC Universal Companies: Employee Count: Part 3

The employee count and notes for Telemundo Media (1,354), NBC Sports (1,305), Universal Channel (78), Universal Pictures (2,222), DreamWorks (1,950), and Universal Parks and Resorts (7,407) have been provided on rows 14 - 19 on the ComcastNBC tab of the attached spreadsheet. The figure for Universal Parks and Resorts were obtained by adding up the employee count of Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Orlando. Please note that the exact employee count listed on LinkedIn have been provided because most of the subsidiaries above listed “10,001+” as company size. Below, I will provide the methodology for this research.

METHODOLOGY
Comcast’s annual report 2017 stated that its NBCUniversal businesses employ approximately 62,000 people but did not provide a breakdown for each subsidiary. All six subsidiaries listed in this research are under the NBCUniversal banner. As the annual report did not provide the required employee count, a press search was conducted in an attempt to obtain the required information. However, the press search did not yield any credible results. Thus, LinkedIn was used as the main source for every subsidiary in this research as it is assumed that it contains the latest estimated employees count based on active accounts. Please note that LinkedIn may not include all employees. The “alternative employee count” for every subsidiary were obtained from relatively “less credible” sources such as estimations from business databases such as Bloomberg, Owler, and articles that were published several years ago. 

The employee count for Telemundo Media is based on the employee count listed on NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises’ LinkedIn account. A search on LinkedIn with the keyword “Universal Channel” was conducted because the division does not have an official LinkedIn account. The employee count for Universal Parks and Resorts is based on the combined figures for Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Orlando as the division does not have an official LinkedIn account. The employee count for NBC Sports, Universal Pictures, and DreamWorks was obtained from their respective LinkedIn accounts.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, rows 14 - 19 on the ComcastNBC tab of the attached spreadsheet have been completed. The largest division is Universal Parks and Resorts with 7,407 people employed at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Orlando. The smallest division is Universal Channel with 78 active employees listed on LinkedIn.