Games manufacturers pressured the global media sector last week. Electronic Arts was down 10 percent, Activision Blizzard lost 7.5 percent and Take-Two Interactive 6.7 percent on ongoing worries over Fortnite, produced by Epic Games (unlisted). They were also hit by China freezing game approvals. Two French broadcasters, TF1 (+23%) and M6 (+15%) led the winners. All in all, the Telecompaper Stock Index Global Media gained 0.7 percent in week 8, slightly outperforming the Dow Jones Industrials (+0.6%).
M&A
Zee Entertainment (+4.4%) denied rumours of selling a stake to Sony (+4.6%)% or Comcast (+2.2%). Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest slightly expanded its Mediaset (+8.0%) stake to over 44 percent. Vivendi (+0.9%) sold its remaining Telefonica stake, but its battle for control of Telecom Italia is ongoing. Vivendi's subsidiary Canal+, according to reports, would be interested in aqcuiring sports rights holding company beIN Sport. Nielsen bought Sorensen Media and Tencent Music Entertainment invested in a Chinese streaming music service. The Modern Times Group sold its Nova stake.
Pinterest, a candidate for the TPSI Global Media, made a confidential filing at the SEC for an IPO in 2019.YTD
Year-to-date, the TPSI Global Media is slightly ahead of the Dow Jones Industrials (+12.2% vesus +11.6%). Roughly half of the constituents are up double digit, led by Snap (+76%), comScore (+58%), the New York Times (+46%) and Netflix (+36%). The weakest shares so far in 2019 include publisher McClatchy (-28%) and gaming manufacturers Take-Two (-15%) and Activision (-11%).
A short overview of the YTS performances by segment reveals that all music, social networking, theatre and VOD shares are up, all games shares are down.
- Advertising: most shares are up. ComScore (+58%) and Criteo (+21%) lead, ahead of the agancies. Alphabet, our index's heaviest component, is up 7.2%
- Broadcasting (the largest segment in terms of number of companies): all shares are up, except Zee Entertainment (-5.7%). The best performing stocks are Seoul Broadcasting (+29%), EW Scripps (+27%) and Sinclair Broadcast (+25%).
- Conglomerates (companies with activities outside media): a mixed view, Comcast (+13%) leads.
- Games: all shares are down, except EA (+22%).
- Music: all shares are up, led by Tencent Music (+35%) and Spotify (+33%).
- Publishing: mixed performances, from NYT (+46%) to McClatchy (-28%).
- Social networking: all four are up double digit, led by Snap (+76%).
- Theatres: both are up, AMC Entertainment +13%) and Cinemark (+7.0%).
- VOD: same, with Netflix (+36%) and Bilibili (+34%).
