Media Stocks Bounce Back as Market Opens Higher

By Jon Lafayette
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Media stocks bounced back as the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed field and turned sharply higher in early trading Tuesday.

With the Dow up 2% after a huge drop Monday, companies in the TV business were showing good gains.

Netflix, a high-flyer that got pounded when the market went south, was up more than 7% Tuesday.

AMC Networks jumped more than 3%, Walt Disney Co. and Viacom gained more than 2% and Time Warner was up more than 1%. Comcast, CBS, 21st Century Fox, Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks registered smaller increases.

Even before the market plummeted over concerns about the Chinese economy and currency, media stocks had been getting hammered. Second quarter earnings reports raised concerns that in addition to slow ad sales, cord cutting threatened the steady growth in distribution revenues TV networks have been promising.

Jon Lafayette
Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.