Profit Margin
10.5%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 515
NAICS 515 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Broadcasting (except Internet) - Industry Benchmarks
$101,188/yr average annual pay, with 48 SBA loans on record for NAICS 515.
- 10.5%
- Net margin
- 262K
- Workers employed
- $101,188/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $47M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 515
Broadcasting (except Internet) runs a 10.5% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 7K establishments employing 262K workers.
- 10.5%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 262K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $101,188/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $47M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Broadcasting (except Internet)'s NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Broadcasting (except Internet) is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Broadcasting (except Internet)
Broadcasting (except Internet) sits inside Information at a 10.5% net margin (in line with the national median), $122.4B in aggregate receipts across 6,737 returns, averaging $18.2B per establishment.
7,208 establishments employ 262,310 workers (36.4/location) at $101,188/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Broadcasting (except Internet) sits in the 19th percentile for employment and the 89th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$122.4B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$12.9B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
262,310
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$101,188/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
7,208
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 9,399; establishment count decreased by 538. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Where each dollar of Broadcasting (except Internet) revenue goes
Workforce scale
Broadcasting (except Internet) margin vs national reference points
Broadcasting (except Internet) net margin 35.1%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
6,737 returns 100%
Margin: 10.5% · Receipts: $122.4B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 6,737
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $18.2B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $26.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 36.4
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Cable and Other Subscription Programming NAICS 5152 | N/A |
| Radio and Television Broadcasting NAICS 5151 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| New York | 59,473 |
| California | 37,570 |
| Florida | 16,951 |
| Texas | 11,993 |
| Georgia | 10,656 |
| Connecticut | 7,774 |
| District of Columbia | 7,131 |
| Virginia | 6,852 |
| Illinois | 6,270 |
| New Jersey | 6,222 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
48
Total Loan Volume
$47M
Avg Loan Size
$975K
Jobs Supported
527
Program Breakdown
7(a) 46 (96%)
504 2 (4%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
3 loans in this industry
New Business Share
18.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (3 yrs)
2020 24
2021 16
2022 8
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Broadcasting (except Internet)?
$122.4B in total annual receipts across all Broadcasting (except Internet) businesses. Average per business: $18.2B.
How profitable is Broadcasting (except Internet)?
10.5% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Broadcasting (except Internet)?
7,208 business establishments. Together they employ 262,310 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Broadcasting (except Internet)?
$101,188/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 36.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Broadcasting (except Internet) employment?
New York leads with 59,473 workers. California (37,570) and Florida (16,951) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Broadcasting (except Internet) receive?
Broadcasting (except Internet) businesses received 48 SBA loans totaling $47 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $975K. These loans supported 527 jobs at origination. Most lending (96%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Broadcasting (except Internet), both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Broadcasting (except Internet) ranks #62 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #8 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (10.5% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (262,310 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Information · Rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 515 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.