Media news & headlines

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) published its quarterly financial results on Tuesday that sent its shares up 5% in extended trading. According to CEO Bob Chapek, Disney will release Mulan online via Disney Plus. At £94 per share, including the gain in after-hours trading on Tuesday, Disney is currently more than 15% down year to date in the stock market after recovering from an even lower £65.62 per share when the impact of COVID-19 was at it...

The National Basketball Association (NBA) kicked off its shortened season on Thursday while the National Hockey League’s (NHL) playoff format starts on Saturday. The Major League Baseball (MLB) season has been underway for a few days and the National Football League (NFL) is on track to start in September. But just what impact will the resumption of American professional sports leagues have on U.S. media stocks as sports fans can’t attend games i...

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) said on Thursday that its revenue grew at the slowest pace in the second quarter since its IPO in 2012. Its quarterly financial results, however, were still stronger than what the experts had forecast. CEO Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook testified before the U.S. Congress on Wednesday along with the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet. Shares of the company jumped roughly 7% in after-hours trading on Friday. At £190 per share, F...

Comcast Corp (NASDAQ: CMCSA) published its quarterly financial results on Thursday that topped analysts’ estimates for earnings and revenue. The second quarter marked the first for the company after the launch of Peacock (ad-supported streaming service) and the one that reflected the full impact of COVID-19 on Comcast’s business. In April, Comcast had reported a 40% decline in profit in the first quarter. Shares of the company opened more than 1%...

Social media giant Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is waging an attack on rival platform TikTok by hitting it where it matters most: influential users, The Wall Street Journal reported. Six-digit payout Facebook wants to pay TikTok users with millions of followers to ditch the China-owned platform and join its Instagram property, per the WSJ report. The report will likely intensify the feud between the two social media companies ahead of Instagram lau...

Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) published its quarterly financial results on Thursday that fell shy of the experts’ forecast for revenue. The company expressed confidence that its ad business showed moderate recovery in recent weeks. Its revenue from this segment, however, still came in 23% lower on a year over year basis in Q2. In the last 3 weeks of June, however, the advertising revenue was only 15% down as compared to the same period last year. Shares o...

Daily Mail and General Trust (LON: DMGT) said on Thursday that its operating profit came in 44% lower in the nine-month period as the Coronavirus pandemic that has so far infected a little under 300,000 people in the United Kingdom and caused over 45,500 deaths offset the growth that it had recorded in the first 5 months. Shares of the company opened about 5% up on Thursday but dropped roughly 1.5% on market open. At 653 pence per share, Daily Ma...

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) published its quarterly financial results late on Thursday that fell shy of the experts’ forecast for earnings per share in the second quarter. The company also announced Ted Sarandos as its new co-CEO and offered him a seat in the Board of Directors. Sarandos has been serving as the Chief Content Officer at Netflix; a role that he is likely to keep moving forward. Netflix Q2 financial results versus analysts’ estimates Acc...

Reach plc (LON: RCH) expressed plans of slashing its workforce by 12% or 550 jobs on Tuesday. The company attributed its decision to COVID-19 that weighed on its regional and national newspapers and curbed circulation and advertising. Reach’s competitor, News Corp UK, also expressed plans of slashing its workforce in June. CEO Rebekah Brooks of the Times publisher said that it was time to make difficult decisions to secure the future of the compa...

Global investment firm giant Blackstone Group Inc (NYSE: BX) thinks that owning facilities where TV and films are produced is a worthwhile investment, even at a time when production is halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reported. Betting hundreds of millions of dollars Blackstone’s real-estate investment team is scooping up land and facilities that are vital to content distributors like Netflix and Walt Disney, WSJ repor...

Google inked new agreements with global media outlets to license its contents, but according to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. companies remain in the dark. The new agreements The Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) unit will partner with Germany’s Spiegel Group, Brazil’s Diarios Associados, and Australia’s Solstice Media to license their content on its platform, WSJ reported. This represents notable progress after several years of back-and-forth between...

Daily Mail and General Trust (LON: DMGT) announced on Thursday that its revenue came in flat in the first half. The company posted a roughly 33% decline in revenue from its consumer media business in April. For May, it estimated a 30% decline in revenue from the media segment. Following the release of its half-year (HY) earnings report, shares of the company were reported 4% down in premarket trading on Thursday. At 708 pence per share, the Londo...

Shares of streaming audio company Spotify Technology SA (NYSE: SPOT) hit a new 52-week high of $179.69 on Tuesday after announcing the signing of podcasting legend Joe Rogan. Who is Joe Rogan? Rogan is a comedian and mixed-martial artist color commentator but perhaps best known for hosting one of the most popular podcasts on YouTube called “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Rogan has been hosting a wide variety of guests on his show. Among the more nota...

Mediaset (BIT: MS) reported a 47% decline in its operating profit in the first quarter on Friday. The company attributed the downbeat performance to the Coronavirus pandemic that weighed on its advertising revenue heavily in March. The country’s largest commercial broadcaster saw a significant hit to profit as the Italian government resorted to a nationwide lockdown to minimize the fast transmission of the flu-like virus. Consequently, businesses...

BT Group (LON: BT.A) said on Thursday that it is negotiating with infrastructure investors to sell its stake in Openreach. BT currently has a multi-billion-pound investment in the network subsidiary. The raised funds from the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary, the company added, will be used to expand its presence in the UK’s full-fibre broadband network. The announcement came on top of BT’s decision to suspend its dividend last week in a bid t...

AMC Entertainment Holding Inc. (NYSE: AMC) remained a focal point for analysts and investors alike in premarket trading on Monday as shares skyrocketed around 47% on Daily Mail’s announcement that Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is interested in acquiring the U.S chain of movie theatres that has been struggling with finances for a few years. According to the Daily Mail’s report, AMC Entertainment, that is primarily known as the owner of Odeon Cinemas,...

Earlier this week on Thursday, Spain’s Telefonica (EBR: TFA) and UK’s Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYA) announced to have signed a £31.4 billion agreement to merge Virgin Media and O2 and introduce a new giant in the United Kingdom’s telecommunications industry. The two firms agreed to a 50-50 partnership. As per the companies, the transaction is likely to be completed by mid-2021. Virgin Media and O2 merger is expected to pose a serious competition...