Weakness at some of the biggest media companies drove the Telecompaper Stock Index Global Consumer Media down in week 26. Alphabet was off 3.7 percent, Comcast fell 2.9 percent, and Netflix and Walt Disney lost 0.5 and 0.4 percent. AT&T's 3.3 percent gain and Facebook's 1.0 percent increase couldn't prevent our index from ending the week down 0.8 percent. The S&P 500 index lost 0.3 percent. The best performing media stocks were Electronic Arts (+6.2%) and Bilibili (+5.4%).
- Advertising. ComScore's share price was off 33 percent in week 26, first on rumours of a rights issues and subsequently on raising up to USD 50 million from one. Also in the advertising segment, WPP (+1.8%) sold a unit and Starbucks moved its media account from Omnicom (+0.7%) to Havas, a unit of Vivendi (-2.1%).
- Video. Viacom (-3.0%) launched another streaming service, this time for BET and in a joint venture. RTL (0.8%) said that it would increase its focus in the German market on its streaming service TV NOW.
M&A
In M&A-related news:
- Vivendi (-2.1%) is calling off indefinitely the sale of a stake in Universal Music Group
- Naspers (-0.6%) isn't investing in fintech company Capital Float after all.
- Lagardere (+0.2%) could be selling its radio stations.
- M6 (+0.9%) is interested in making acquisitions in the prodco segment.
- The CBS (-1.1%) / Viacom (-3.0%) 're-merger' was speculated about once more.
- The FCC is looking into the blocked Sinclair (-0.8%) / Tribune (-0.3%) deal.
Year-to-date
Year to date, our index is performing in line (+17.1%) with the S&P 500 (+17.3%). Snap is in the lead, up no less than 160 percent. Sinclair Broadcast is also doing extremely well: +104 percent. In third place comes Facebook (+47%). The two weakest shares are McClatchy (-66%) and Comscore (-64%).
