Congloms Stocks Drop; Network Ratings Fall As Original Content Runs Dry

Congloms Stocks Drop; Network Ratings Fall As Original Content Runs Dry

Wall Street  

As per AOL Money & Finance:

Disney, CBS, GE, Time Warner, News Corp. and Viacom are all officially underperforming the Dow.

The green line on the chart above (ticker symbol $INDU) is the Dow Jones Index. The graph shows stock price performance relative to the Dow Jones since Nov. 2, the last trading day before the strike.

We're aware that many, many variables affect stock price performance; a whole industry is built around the complexity of those variables.

That said, we're simply pointing out the fact that, although the larger Dow is inarguably down, the conglomerates' stock prices have underperformed even further than the average, on a timeline that lines up with the strike. Even this Marketwatch article, which attributes the media companies' losses in part to recession fears, also points out the damage being done by the WGA strike.

According to the Neilsen numbers, ratings for the major networks have dropped in the advertiser-critical 18-49 demographic (excluding sports).

Ratings for the week ending Jan 20:

ABC -35%, CBS -27%, FOX -3%, NBC -17%

Season-to-date ratings:

ABC -14%, CBS -20%, FOX -3%, NBC -16%

John Sayles Talks Labor, Movies and the Strike

John Sayles Talks Labor, Movies and the Strike

Wall Street  

Over at HuffPo, writer-director John Sayles gives an interview with Bob Eisele about unions, the entertainment industry, the strike and how the changing world of Internet delivery is intersecting with the consolidation of huge corporations:

What we have today are fewer unionized workers, especially if you don't count public service workers, than you've ever had before. And the movie industry is one of the most unionized industries left. I feel a lot of what this strike is about is corporations looking at their entertainment division and saying, "What's the deal here? As the paradigm changes, can't we turn this into Wal-Mart?"

Read the whole conversation here.

NBC Cancels Pilot Season... Forever?

NBC Cancels Pilot Season... Forever?

Wall Street  

NBC has announced that it is doing away with pilot season. The New York Times reported Wednesday that NBC Universal chief executive officer Jeff Zucker made the announcement during a videoconference from London with the company's international employees. Zucker's decision to eliminate pilot season is an effort to cut costs due to the writers strike and a slowdown in the economy. According to Zucker the cuts will reportedly save the company as much as $50 million a year. Zucker went on to say they may still occasionally produce a pilot or two each year, just not on a regular schedule.

This comes on the heels of rumors that GE may be looking to divest itself of NBC Universal during this year's second quarter.