Last week in media: quarterly results and regulation hit internet majors and possibly streamers

News General Global 29 JUL 2019
Last week in media: quarterly results and regulation hit internet majors and possibly streamers

Week 30 was a dramatic week for the global media sector. Quarterly results and regulation had large and widely diverging effects. The week's outliers were Snap (+28%) and the Modern Times Group (-16%). Snap investors are now enjoying a year-to-date gain of 225 percent. The Telecompaper Stock Index Global Media was up an impressive 4.9 percent for the week, well ahead of the S&P 500 (+1.7%).

Internet segment: results and regulation

Facebook (+0.7% in week 30) reported solid results and settled with the FTC over privacy issues. The company is now looking at regulation for at least the next 20 years. The US Justice Department launched its own investigation, targeting the possibly monopolistic behaviour of the major internet platforms. One of the DoJ's targets will be Google, whose parent company Alphabet (+11%) presented strong Q2 results. Other companies reporting included Snap (+28%) and Twitter (+13%).

Also in the internet segment, South African Naspers (+3.3%) set September 11 for the listing of its internet business Prosus. The Modern Times Group (-16%) gaming company presented higher sales but was forced to lower its outlook.

Broadcasters reporting

Mediaset (+0.7%) rejected Vivendi's (+5.1%) call for an extrardinary shareholder meeting in order to regain voting power and decide over the new planned holding company Media For Europe for the Mediaset assets. Both Mediaset and Vivendi reported their Q2 results. The latter also took the next step in monetising its big Universal Music Group subsidiary.

Several more broadcasters reported, including ITV (+2.3%), TF1 (+2.6%), Atresmedia (-3.7%) and TV Azteca (-2.5%). In other broadcast news, CBS (+2.3%) and Viacom (+1.6%) were rumoured to have set 8 August as the date for their re-merger announcement.

Streaming video: possible regulation

In the streaming video segment, CBS (+2.3%) announced a spike in subscriber numbers for its All Access service as a result of the ongoing disagreement with AT&T (+4.1%) over carriage fees, leading CBS to go black on AT&T services in many markets. Comcast (+1.3%) had its Q2 report out and Walt Disney (+3.4%) revealed more Marvel content plans.

ProSieben (-0.9%) announced plans for internationally expanding its SVOD joint venture Joyn, with Discovery (unchanged). The French Salto project of France Televisions (unlisted), M6 (+0.7%) and TF1 (+2.6%) met some resistance from local operators, afraid that the broadcasters would collude for high carriage fees or otherwise hinder the channel distribution through pay-TV operators.

Categories:

General

Companies:

M6,  TF1,  Telecompaper,  Comcast,  Facebook,  Google,  ITV,  Mediaset,  Naspers,  Twitter,  Universal Music,  Viacom,  Vivendi,  Disney,  Snap

Regions:

Global

Tags:

Market research

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UNITED STATES 25 JUL 2019

Comcast Q2 results up as Sky growth offsets US cord-cutting

Comcast reported second-quarter revenues up 23.6 percent to USD 26.9 billion, driven by its acquisition of European pay-TV provider Sky. Adjusted EBITDA rose 17.5 percent to USD 8.7 billion, while net profit dipped 2.8 percent to EUR 3.1 billion. Adjusted EPS was still up 13 percent to USD 0.78. 

ITALY 25 JUL 2019

Mediaset H1 profit soars on lower pay-TV costs

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FRANCE 25 JUL 2019

Iliad and Molotov raise objections over French broadcasters' Salto project – report

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GLOBAL 25 JUL 2019

Facebook earnings fall on FTC, tax charges; revenues grow 28%

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EUROPE 24 JUL 2019

ProSiebenSat.1 considers expanding streaming platform Joyn to other European countries

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UNITED STATES 24 JUL 2019

FTC confirms USD 5 bln fine and 20-year compliance agreement for Facebook privacy violations

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UNITED KINGDOM 24 JUL 2019

ITV H1 sales fall 7 percent as ad revenues drop and online growth slows

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Snap adds record 13 mln users in Q2

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SPAIN 23 JUL 2019

Mediaset rejects Vivendi's extraordinary meeting request

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SWEDEN 22 JUL 2019

MTG lifts Q2 net sales 11%, cuts FY target after slower esports media rights monetisation

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GLOBAL 22 JUL 2019

Naspers confirms Prosus listing for 11 September

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