Information
NAICS 51 Information sector: telecom, cloud, media, and publishing — key players, FCC regulation, and market structure.
Industry at a Glance
Sector-wide aggregates across all businesses classified under NAICS 51 (2017 classification frame). For specific sub-industries within this sector, see the individual reports below.
Industry Overview
The Information sector (NAICS 51) covers industries that produce, process, and distribute information and cultural products — publishing, film and sound recording, broadcasting, telecommunications, and data processing. The sector's center of gravity sits with a handful of dominant firms: AT&T and Verizon control the wireline and wireless telecommunications infrastructure, Comcast operates both the largest US cable system and NBCUniversal's content portfolio, and Alphabet (Google) and Meta Platforms generate the majority of US digital advertising revenue through search and social media platforms.
Telecommunications remains the sector's largest subsector by revenue, regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Communications Act and the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The FCC's ongoing reclassification debates around broadband — whether to treat internet service as a Title II common carrier utility or a Title I information service — directly shape pricing, competition, and investment incentives for ISPs. The sector concentrates geographically: Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area anchor software and internet publishing, Los Angeles dominates motion picture and sound recording, and New York City hosts the densest cluster of publishing, broadcasting, and advertising technology firms.
Data processing and cloud infrastructure represent the fastest-growing subsector, led by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. These three providers hold the majority of US cloud infrastructure market share, creating a structural dependency across every industry that relies on hosted computing, storage, and machine learning services.
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Industry Trends
The FCC's broadband reclassification proceedings under Title II versus Title I of the Communications Act remain the sector's most consequential regulatory question, determining whether ISPs like Comcast and AT&T face common-carrier obligations on pricing and network management practices.
Streaming platform market saturation is driving a return to profitability-focused models, with Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global pulling back on content spending while Netflix and Disney+ introduce ad-supported tiers to supplement subscription revenue.
Hyperscale data center construction is concentrating in Northern Virginia (Loudoun County alone hosts the world's densest cluster), central Ohio, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, driven by cloud computing demand and now accelerated by the compute requirements of large language model training.
The EU Digital Markets Act and proposed US antitrust actions against Google and Meta are challenging platform dominance models, with the DOJ's 2024 antitrust victory against Google for search distribution contracts signaling potential structural remedies for digital gatekeepers.
Local news publishing continues to contract — over 2,500 newspapers have closed since 2005 according to Northwestern's Medill School — creating information deserts in rural communities while digital-native outlets like Axios and The Athletic (acquired by The New York Times) pursue metro and niche audience strategies.
Available Reports
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Subsectors
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Frequently Asked Questions
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