Nexstar was allowed to become the largest broadcaster in the US last week. In the broader video market, some of the biggest hit television shows were at the centre of attention as Netflix and AT&T were buying up series for their streaming services. Facebook introduced new hardware and Alphabet's cloud unit, the Google Cloud Platform, announced large investments in both data centres and renewable energy. Our Global Media Index was down 1.2 percent in week 38, versus a loss of 0.5 percent for the S&P 500 index.
Broadcasting
Nextstar's takeover of Tribune was approved by the FCC, creating the largest broadcasting group in the US. Nexstar's share price was up 1.0 percent for the week, Tribune's 0.1 percent. Creating a pan-European broadcaster has proven to be much harder, with companies including RTL (-1.7% for week 38), Vivendi (-0.5%) and Mediaset (-0.5%) the most important candidates. Mediaset found a new partner in creating what it is calling Media For Europe (MFE), a new holding company. Atresmedia (+2.5%), a part of the RTL group of companies, was teaming up with Telefonica to create original content. In other news, Mediaset and Atresmedia are looking at a EUR 40 million fine each for collusion on the Spanish advertising market.
Video
Some of the biggest TV series are finding new homes for the next few years - for the streaming video segment, that is. Last week Netflix (-8.0%) was spending big on Seinfeld, and HBO Max, the upcoming service from AT&T (unchanged), acquired The Big Bang Theory. Comcast (-1.1%) decided to name its upcoming service Peacock. At the same time, according to reports, it is shopping no fewer than 72 seasons of TV content around, which may, as a result, not be part of the new Peacock offering.
Other segments
- In the internet segment, Facebook (+1.5%) introduced new hardware, both in the Portal line of smart displays and in the category of smart glasses. Alphabet's (-0.8%) Google, specifically the GCP cloud unit, announced large investments in both European data centres and global renewable energy.
- In the publishing segment McClatchy was given 18 months to comply with NYSE listing standards. The company also launched a nationwide US initiative, based on its opinion content. The stock is down 65 percent year-to-date.
- Significant news for the music segment came from Amazon, adding an HD (FLAC) tier.
