Filed under: Deals, Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom (VIA), CBS Corp ‘B’ (CBS), Recession
The strike by the Writers Guild of America, which has crippled production of Television show and films, is likely to end this week, according to several media sources. The division between the writers and studios over revenue from internet content appears to have been addressed. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), “in discussions between the studios and the Writers Guild, one particular issue was the money a writer makes when a TV show is streamed on the World wide web with advertising. The writers won a 2% share of a distributor’s gross in the third year of the contract.”
Now Wall Street can turn to the issue of whether the weakness in huge media company shares might start to abate. Stocks of companies with big Television and film revenue might get a boost from the news. That might only be temporary if a recession claims growth in TV ad dollars and studio ticket and DVD sales.
CBS (NYSE: CBS), Disney (NYSE: DIS), and Viacom (NYSE: VIA) have all traded down since Christmas, though several big media companies say that they’re not seeing slowdowns in their businesses.
But, advertising can’t escape a share slump, so settling the writers strike may do very tiny for shareholders this year.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
Entries (RSS)