MEDIA STOCKS PLUNGE

Amid growing pessimism about the economic recovery, media stocks plunged wildly after the market opened today (Tuesday). CBS Corp., which depends on advertising more than any other major media company, was hit hard in early trading, as its shares dropped nearly 6 percent but closed down 1.76 percent. But Sony Corp. did not experience a [...]

STOCKS FALL; MEDIA STOCKS FALL FARTHER

As the overall stock market experienced another plunge in its recent roller-coaster ride, some investors in media stocks hung on for dear life Thursday. The Dow Jones U.S. Broadcasting & Entertainment Total Stock Market Index fell 4 percent, but media companies that rely the most heavily on advertising revenue plunged far more deeply. For a [...]

CBS RALLIES, STOCK UP 10 PERCENT

CBS Corp., which was one of the companies hit hardest by the stock-market plunge on Friday and Monday, put on a show of strength in early trading today. Shares of the company rose more than 10 percent after Argus Research upgraded the rating on CBS stock to buy from hold. Media stocks in general rallied, [...]

VIACOM SUES CABLEVISION OVER IPAD APP

Viacom on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Cablevision, the cable company that primarily serves the New York City region, for its app that allows viewers to watch television programs on their iPads at home, effectively turning them into an additional TV screen. Although Viacom and Cablevision have been discussing Viacom’s complaints — that such use [...]

COMCAST TO FOLLOW CABLEVISION IN OFFERING “CLOUD” RECORDING

Following a ruling by a federal appeals court in New York that approved Cablevision’s plan to allow its subscribers to store and retrieve television shows on its remote servers, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable system, said on Wednesday that it plans to offer a similar “cloud”-based service. Comcast’s Chief Technology Officer Tony Werner told Bloomberg [...]

CABLEVISION TO OFFER ALL ITS CONTENT ON IPAD APP

Setting itself up for what will almost certainly be a legal battle with content providers, Cablevision has released a new app for Apple iPads that will allow users to watch all the content that they receive via cable on them. Content providers contend that such use is not covered under their agreements with cable companies. [...]

NETFLIX REPLACES NEW YORK TIMES CO. ON S&P 500

In a sign of the times, Netflix will replace the New York Times Co. and Cablevision Systems Corp will replace King Pharmaceuticals Inc. on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index (S&P 500), following the close of trading on Friday, Dec. 17, The changes were among several announced by Standard and Poor’s on Friday. Shares in [...]

WHILE CABLE COMPANIES LOSE SUBSCRIBERS, DIRECTV GAINS THEM

While several of the largest cable-TV providers, including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision, have reported significant subscriber losses during the last quarter, home satellite operator DirecTV indicated on Thursday that they may be picking up at least some of them. It said that it has added 174,000 subscribers over the past quarter versus 136,000 [...]

NEWS CORP SEES PROFITS JUMP

News Corp reported a big jump in net income during its first quarter, led by gains in its television and newspaper operations, as advertisers who had slashed their spending a year ago returned to the field. The media conglomerate reported net income of $775 million, up 36 percent from $571 million during the comparable quarter [...]

FOX, CABLEVISION END DISPUTE; CABLEVISION’S UNHAPPY

Fox TV and Cablevision may have reached an agreement to end their 16-day stalemate over retransmission consent fees on Saturday — in time to allow the third game of the World Series to be viewed by Cablevision’s subscribers who live mostly in the New York area — but Cablevision executives were clearly unhappy with the [...]

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