The Top 10 Media Companies Ranked by AI Revenue
AI is hungry for content—and brands like Shutterstock, Reddit, The New York Times are turning data into dollars (with a surprise appearance from Curiosity Stream).
AI licensing is now a meaningful line item for media companies.
I’ve ranked the top 10 by estimated 2024 revenue from licensing content to firms like OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
Figures come from public filings, earnings calls, and credible media reports—with a few estimates where needed.
Here’s what the numbers show.
1. Shutterstock – $138,000,000
Shutterstock's AI licensing revenue is the highest in media. CEO Paul J. Hennessy told Bloomberg the company expects to make $138M in 2024, up from $104M in 2023.
Deals include OpenAI, Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Reka.
Shutterstock CFO said Big Tech deals ranged from $25M to $50M each, with Reka estimated around $5M.
Sources:
2. Reddit – $130,000,000
Reddit’s 2024 revenue is $1.3B, and 10% comes from AI licensing, per COO and IPO filings. That equals $130M.
Deals include OpenAI and Google, with Google alone estimated to pay $60M/year.
Sources:
Reddit IPO Prospectus (2025): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001604590/000119312525034883/d638843ds1.htm
3. News Corp – $50,000,000
OpenAI signed a 5-year, $250M deal with News Corp, valuing the annual revenue at $50M. The deal includes access to archives from WSJ, Barron’s, MarketWatch, NY Post, and more.
Content is not made available to ChatGPT immediately after publication.
Source:
4. Wiley – $44,000,000
Wiley confirmed a $23M one-time deal and expects $44M in total AI revenue in 2024 from rights sales. The deal involves access to academic and professional book content for LLM training.
Sources:
https://www.thebookseller.com/news/wiley-set-to-earn-44m-from-ai-rights-deals
Wiley Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript: https://s29.q4cdn.com/290479532/files/doc_financials/2024/q3/Wiley-Q3-2024-Earnings-Call-Transcript.pdf
5. The New York Times – $33,333,333
Google signed a $100M, 3-year deal with the NYT. That’s $33.3M/year. The NYT is also suing OpenAI for copyright infringement.
This deal doesn’t show up in most lists of AI Content Licensing Deals because it was struck in early 2023 (the deal was first reported by the WSJ’s Alexandra Bruell in May 8, 2023).
But I think the Google/NYT deal has got to have an AI component.
Google would have to be an idiot not to ask for AI rights (and they’re not idiots).
Just look at my graph in The Top 20 milestones in AI and you’ll notice how important a time early 2023 was. ChatGPT had launched in November 2022.
We now know that Google was in red-alert panic mode and I’m guessing would have smartly insisted on rights to use NYT content in their soon-to-be-released Bard LLM (released March 21, 2023 and later Gemini).
Source:
6. Curiosity Stream – $19,600,000
This is the first big surprise. Curiosity Stream is the leading documentary streaming web site.
CEO Clint Stinchcomb shared in an earnings call that AI licensing revenue is at least 50% of its $9.8M quarterly subscription revenue, implying $19.6M/year. Content includes science and education video archives.
Source:
Curiosity Stream Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript: https://ir.curiositystream.com/events/event-details/q4-2024-curiositystream-inc-earnings-conference-call
Did you know that I have another newsletter that recommends documentaries for fun: Daily Doc?.
7. IAC / Dotdash Meredith – $16,000,000
OpenAI pays a minimum of $16M/year to license content from Dotdash Meredith (People, Investopedia, etc.).
This is just the fixed part—additional variable payments are expected.
Sources:
https://www.adweek.com/media/dotdash-merediths-openai-deal-is-worth-16-million-per-year/
IAC Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript: https://ir.iac.com/static-files/3e0a1f4f-1f10-44a7-9dd0-d8d7c1fa82c7
8. Freepik – $12,000,000
Another surprise on the list.
Freepik CEO Joaquin Cuenca Abela told Reuters that the company has licensed a majority of its 200M image archive to two major tech companies, including some of the largest generative AI developers, at rates between 2 and 4 cents per image.
Based on volume and pricing, this suggests a minimum of $12M/year in AI training revenue.
Cuenca Abela noted five more similar deals are in the pipeline, reflecting accelerating demand for Freepik’s visual dataset.
Source:
9. Informa (Taylor & Francis) – $10,000,000
Informa’s academic publishing unit Taylor & Francis signed a 3-year deal with Microsoft worth over $10M in its first year.
The deal includes access to learning content and data, with a focus on productivity tools and expert agent development using Microsoft Copilot.
Source:
10. Axel Springer – $8,333,333
OpenAI deal valued at $25M–$30M over 3 years, averaging $8.33M/year. Content from Business Insider, Politico, Bild, and Welt is used for both training and display.
Source:
Bonus: At first I was focused on a top 10 list, but I couldn’t resist including one more (especially when it’s the FT!):
11. Financial Times – $7,500,000
OpenAI deal estimated between $5M–$10M/year for both display and training rights.
ChatGPT users can view FT summaries, quotes, and rich links.
Sources:
https://digiday.com/media/financial-times-and-openai-announce-partnership/
https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/27/financial-times-openai-chatgpt-enterprise-deal
Other Media Companies Making AI Revenue
Several other media companies have struck AI content licensing deals. You can see my AI Content Licensing Deals list — I’ll add their revenue amounts as I learn them.
Is X.com (Twitter) actually the #1 media company by AI licensing revenue?
Just as I was wrapping up this article, the Wall Street Journal (Lauren Thomas, Alexander Saeedy, and Peter Rudegair) reported that x.AI "pays hundreds of millions of dollars" to X.com (formerly Twitter) to train its models on X’s data, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Given that x.AI launched on March 9, 2023, and the WSJ report is dated April 10, 2025, it’s reasonable to estimate the deal is worth at least $200 million per year.
That would put X.com/Twitter at the top of the list above.
Final Takeaways
For Media & Content Owners
AI licensing revenue could soon match or exceed what you make from ads or subscriptions – especially if you own image or video archives, which are commanding premium prices. Fixed + variable payments are becoming the norm.
For AI Execs
The content market is heating up. Early movers like OpenAI and Google have locked in exclusive and premium deals. But there are still amazing media companies to license from. To stay competitive—and avoid lawsuits—secure high-quality training data before prices go up or publishers close ranks.
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Creator & Host of Media & the Machine
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