AbstractIn the fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems, a majority of the traffic demands are contributed by various multimedia applications. To support the future 5G multimedia communication systems, the massive multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) technique is recognized as a key enabler because of its high spectral efficiency. The massive antennas and radio frequency chains not only improve the implementation cost of 5G wireless communication systems but also result in an intense mutual coupling effect among antennas because of the limited space for deploying antennas. To reduce the cost, an optimal equivalent precoding matrix with the minimum number of radio frequency chains is proposed for 5G multimedia massive MIMO communication systems considering the mutual coupling effect. Moreover, an upper bound of the effective capacity is derived for 5G multimedia massive MIMO communication systems. Two antennas that receive diversity gain models are built and analyzed. The impacts of the antenna spacing, the number of antennas, the quality‐of‐service (QoS) statistical exponent, and the number of independent incident directions on the effective capacity of 5G multimedia massive MIMO communication systems are analyzed. Comparing with the conventional zero‐forcing precoding matrix, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed optimal equivalent precoding matrix can achieve a higher achievable rate for 5G multimedia massive MIMO communication systems. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.