THE SHAPE OF THE UNIVERSE: JUNE 2026
ALL MY MEDIA MAPS SINCE 2020, ON ONE PAGE
Welcome to the Map Page! I post all my Media Universe Map here.
THIS IS THE JUNE 2026 MAP:
[THIS IS A LOW RES JUNE MAP - HIGH RES MAPS FROM 2020-2026 ARE THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.]
My name is Evan Shapiro. Many people refer to me as a Media Cartographer. This map is why. Since 2020, using only publicly available data and powerpoint, I have been mapping the Media ecosystem, redrawing it each month and posting it here. The map represents my view of the most important entities warring for attention in the Media, tech, and entertainment industries.
The ratios on the map are not subjective opinion... they’re maths. Each entity is represented to scale by their current valuation - the fairest way I could find to portray the gravitational pull of power in the info-entertainment-tech industrial complex and track the trajectories of all its major players over time.
As a point of comparison, here👇 is my first Media Universe Map, from 2020…
Drafting these maps, by hand, in PowerPoint; digging into the earning reports of every company on the map quarter after quarter; tracking the trajectories of all the planets, month after month, year after year, offers useful and unique perspective.
That process fuels this newsletter: where I publish more visualizations and infographical landscapes (such as the UK TV Universe, the Addressable Table of Elements, and the Creator Ecosphere) as part of weekly analytical essays covering the Media Industrial Complex and its ongoing mishegas.
The June map shows massive movement in the Media Universe.
AI Valuations are literally off the charts. I’ve added SpaceX/xAI which goes public this week, likely at a valuation of $1 trillion or more. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are valued near that bonkers high water mark as well. Oracle is up $51 billion in the last 30 days, making Daddy Ellison the world’s third richest man.
For some perspective, Anthropic, alone, is now worth $300 billion more than Netflix, Disney, Comcast, Paramount, Fox, and Versant - combined.
I’ve added Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom to the telco region - because mobile providers are now the most important Media bundlers on the planet.
I added Mediawan to the Euro Media Zone, at the suggestion of a super-savvy reader of the newsletter.
Samsung has overtaken Walmart in value - also a product of the AI hype cycle.
Comcast is at its lowest market cap in a decade and a half, proving my ongoing assessment of their epic leadership vacuum.
Many of the sports leagues have been re-valued: the MLB jumps from $79 billion to $95 billion; the NHL skates from $57 billion to $67 billion; the IPL scores $19 billion; and, in honor of The World Cup starting this week, the introduction of FIFA to the map.
Netflix’s value is down 40% year on year - showing that the street agrees with my analysis that they are utterly out of ideas (proven by their silly bidding war for Disco Bros and their constant copycatting of YouTube. In just one year, Netflix has devolved from disrupter to Trad Media - and its value shows it.
On the other hand, FOX is charging, while Paramount continues to shrink (in both value and ethics). This reiterates my side by side case study of the two companies and their very different Nepo Kid leaders.
May’s map shows that gravitational pull I demonstrated in my very first map - away from Trad Media and towards Big Tech - isn’t just continuing, it’s accelerating. It makes one wonder:
Which OG Media Planets on today’s map will even exist as stand-alone entities on my May 2030 Media Universe Map?
Stay tuned right here to find out!
The maps above are in low resolution. Below, you’ll find Media Maps from each year since 2020, in high res, for you to download and use however you like.
I hope you have a very Happy 2026!
ESHAP
MEDIA UNIVERSE MAPS 2020-2026: IN HIGH RES
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