Top Communication Services Stocks by Operating Margin
Top communication services companies ranked by operating margin, latest annual filings.
What Operating Margin Means for Communication Services Companies
Operating margin in communication services spans a very wide range because the sector pulls together two quite different business models. Digital advertising platforms and interactive entertainment firms, carrying asset-light cost structures, tend to post operating margins near the top of the listed universe. Legacy wireline and wireless carriers earn solid but noticeably thinner margins weighed down by network depreciation. Cable operators, streaming services, and film studios sit somewhere in between, depending on content amortization and subscriber economics.
Why It Matters in Communication Services
For ad-driven platforms, operating margin shows how much scale and network effect the business has extracted, once the bulk of product and infrastructure spend has been built. For telcos, it reflects pricing discipline against heavy depreciation on the network. Still, content amortization schedules and capitalized programming costs can swing reported operating margin meaningfully, and advertising cyclicality means digital platforms look structurally more profitable in a strong ad market than through a weak one.
What to Read Alongside
Pair operating margin with Revenue to separate scale from profitability, EBITDA to strip out heavy network and content amortization, and Free Cash Flow to see whether reported operating profit converts into cash.
| # | Symbol | Company | Sector | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | APP | AppLovin Corporation | Communication Services | 75.75% | $129.62B |
| 2 | RCI | Rogers Communications Inc. | Communication Services | 45.23% | $18.01B |
| 3 | META | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Communication Services | 41.44% | $1.56T |
| 4 | TME | Tencent Music Entertainment Group | Communication Services | 40.62% | $15.58B |
| 5 | VEON | VEON Ltd. | Communication Services | 32.71% | $5.34B |
| 6 | GOOG | Alphabet Inc. | Communication Services | 32.03% | $3.49T |
| 7 | NTES | NetEase, Inc. | Communication Services | 31.82% | $82.89B |
| 8 | BZ | Kanzhun Limited | Communication Services | 29.80% | $7.73B |
| 9 | NFLX | Netflix, Inc. | Communication Services | 29.49% | $260.38B |
| 10 | TIGO | Millicom International Cellular S.A. | Communication Services | 28.17% | $13.96B |
| 11 | WB | Weibo Corporation | Communication Services | 26.45% | $1.60B |
| 12 | MTCH | Match Group, Inc | Communication Services | 25.02% | $8.88B |
| 13 | TIMB | TIM S.A. | Communication Services | 23.83% | $8.62B |
| 14 | KYIV | Kyivstar Group Ltd. | Communication Services | 23.68% | $2.95B |
| 15 | CHTR | Charter Communications, Inc. | Communication Services | 23.57% | $13.51B |
| 16 | TLK | Perusahaan Perseroan (Persero) PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk | Communication Services | 23.21% | $10.95B |
| 17 | PHI | PLDT Inc. | Communication Services | 23.05% | $3.95B |
| 18 | VZ | Verizon Communications Inc. | Communication Services | 21.17% | $189.37B |
| 19 | TMUS | T-Mobile US, Inc. | Communication Services | 20.70% | $171.61B |
| 20 | CHT | Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. | Communication Services | 20.56% | $38.67B |
| 21 | TTD | The Trade Desk, Inc. | Communication Services | 20.35% | $6.11B |
| 22 | AMX | América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. | Communication Services | 20.28% | $76.79B |
| 23 | RDDT | Reddit, Inc. | Communication Services | 20.07% | $18.36B |
| 24 | T | AT&T Inc. | Communication Services | 19.23% | $145.71B |
| 25 | VSNT | Versant Media Group, Inc. | Communication Services | 19.02% | $4.61B |
| 26 | DIS | The Walt Disney Company | Communication Services | 18.59% | $201.59B |
| 27 | TKO | TKO Group Holdings, Inc. | Communication Services | 17.63% | $36.15B |
| 28 | SIRI | Sirius XM Holdings Inc. | Communication Services | 17.19% | $10.90B |
| 29 | NXST | Nexstar Media Group, Inc. | Communication Services | 17.15% | $5.86B |
| 30 | CMCSA | Comcast Corporation | Communication Services | 16.71% | $86.61B |
| 31 | VIV | Telefônica Brasil S.A. | Communication Services | 16.54% | $18.26B |
| 32 | WLY | John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | Communication Services | 16.51% | $2.55B |
| 33 | TKC | Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. | Communication Services | 15.87% | $3.98B |
| 34 | NYT | The New York Times Company | Communication Services | 15.28% | $10.93B |
| 35 | PSO | Pearson plc | Communication Services | 14.17% | $10.38B |
| 36 | MSGE | Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. | Communication Services | 13.34% | $3.65B |
| 37 | MOMO | Hello Group Inc. | Communication Services | 13.07% | $660.72M |
| 38 | FWONA | Formula One Group | Communication Services | 12.87% | $25.32B |
| 39 | SPOT | Spotify Technology S.A. | Communication Services | 12.79% | $123.97B |
| 40 | GTN | Gray Media, Inc. | Communication Services | 12.67% | $506.68M |
| 41 | ZD | Ziff Davis, Inc. | Communication Services | 12.62% | $1.70B |
| 42 | YELP | Yelp Inc. | Communication Services | 12.60% | $1.06B |
| 43 | TU | TELUS Corporation | Communication Services | 11.52% | $14.35B |
| 44 | CRTO | Criteo S.A. | Communication Services | 10.43% | $758.89M |
| 45 | WMG | Warner Music Group Corp. | Communication Services | 10.35% | $16.37B |
| 46 | IDT | IDT Corporation | Communication Services | 9.34% | $2.04B |
| 47 | KT | KT Corporation | Communication Services | 8.95% | $8.97B |
| 48 | SSP | The E.W. Scripps Company | Communication Services | 8.56% | $282.64M |
| 49 | PINS | Pinterest, Inc. | Communication Services | 7.58% | $10.87B |
| 50 | TV | Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. | Communication Services | 7.18% | $1.24B |
| 51 | VOD | Vodafone Group Public Limited Company | Communication Services | 7.03% | $36.10B |
| 52 | ANGI | Angi Inc. | Communication Services | 6.35% | $283.45M |
| 53 | SKM | SK Telecom Co., Ltd. | Communication Services | 6.13% | $11.99B |
| 54 | AMCX | AMC Global Media Inc. | Communication Services | 5.77% | $346.09M |
| 55 | STGW | Stagwell Inc. | Communication Services | 5.47% | $2.89B |
| 56 | SBGI | Sinclair, Inc. | Communication Services | 5.46% | $990.23M |
| 57 | TEO | Telecom Argentina S.A. | Communication Services | 5.40% | $4.29B |
| 58 | LYV | Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. | Communication Services | 4.96% | $41.31B |
| 59 | PLAY | Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. | Communication Services | 4.09% | $272.03M |
| 60 | BILI | Bilibili Inc. | Communication Services | 3.71% | $5.86B |
| 61 | WPP | WPP plc | Communication Services | 2.82% | $5.88B |
| 62 | QNST | QuinStreet, Inc. | Communication Services | 2.74% | $1.18B |
| 63 | JOYY | JOYY Inc. | Communication Services | 2.63% | $3.96B |
| 64 | OMC | Omnicom Group Inc. | Communication Services | 2.57% | $23.70B |
| 65 | MSGK | MSG Knickerbockers Corp. | Communication Services | 2.50% | $7.51B |
| 66 | LILA | Liberty Latin America Ltd. | Communication Services | 2.44% | $1.66B |
| 67 | AENT | Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation | Communication Services | 2.37% | $223.29M |
| 68 | TBLA | Taboola.com Ltd. | Communication Services | 2.30% | $532.55M |
| 69 | MAX | MediaAlpha, Inc. | Communication Services | 1.99% | $840.69M |
| 70 | SCHL | Scholastic Corporation | Communication Services | 0.96% | $684.83M |
| 71 | IQ | iQIYI, Inc. | Communication Services | 0.84% | $926.33M |
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How this ranking is built
Companies are ranked by operating margin as reported in their most recent annual filing with the SEC. Figures shown are in US dollars (or percent, as noted), rounded to two decimals.
- Source: annual 10-K / 20-F filings from companies trading on US exchanges (NYSE, Nasdaq, AMEX).
- Fiscal year: whichever annual period the company has most recently filed. Fiscal years don't always align with the calendar year, so the "as of FY" stamp above reflects the most common year across the table.
- Filtered out: warrants, preferred shares, and duplicate listings that share a parent company's financials.
- Size floor: A company qualifies at $1 billion in annual revenue or above, so a small filer with a freak ratio cannot top the list.
- Value range: Only figures above 0% and up to 100% qualify.
- Market cap: stated at each company's latest close, which is newer than the annual figure ranked here.
- Update cadence: refreshed as companies file new annual reports (typically within 60–90 days of fiscal year end).
Not financial advice. This is a research tool, not a recommendation.
Frequently asked questions
Why do digital ad platforms earn so much wider operating margins than legacy telcos?
Digital ad platforms monetize user attention on infrastructure whose cost grows sublinearly with usage, and their marketplace model lets them extract a large take rate without carrying inventory or physical distribution. Legacy telcos, by contrast, operate capital-intensive wireless and wireline networks whose depreciation schedules consume a meaningful share of revenue, and spectrum and fiber buildouts require ongoing reinvestment. The result is a structural operating margin gap between platform economics and network economics that has persisted for most of the past decade.
How do content amortization policies distort operating margin at streamers and studios?
Firms that produce or license content capitalize the upfront cost and amortize it against revenue over a useful-life assumption, which can span years and often depends on subscriber behavior. Changes in that amortization policy, such as accelerating write-downs on underperforming shows, can swing reported operating margin meaningfully in a single period without anything changing about the underlying business. Comparing content-heavy firms on operating margin typically requires reading the amortization disclosure inside the footnotes alongside the headline figure.