- Media stocks are lower today as a miss by Walt Disney (DIS -4.6%) and a sea change to its streaming distribution ripples out sectorwide.
- Disney's move to take majority control of BAMTech, and use that as a springboard to launch over-the-top services around ESPN and the parent Disney brand, are stoking talk about the speed with which cord-cutting is affecting numerous media stakeholders.
- With a growing number of services built around single channels, and consolidation speeding up, analysts are looking to which channels may be left without OTT dance partners in the unbundled future.
- Viacom (VIA -1.2%, VIAB -2.9%), home to channels including MTV, BET, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, is lower today. Twenty-First Century Fox (FOX -2%, FOXA -2.1%) is too, as is CBS (CBS -1.4%), though NBC owner Comcast (CMCSA +0.6%) is bucking the tide.
- Discovery (NASDAQ:DISCA) -- set to combine with Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE:SNI) -- is 3.7% lower, while SNI is 0.5% lower.
- AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX), one of the "odd network out" risks, is off 0.9%.
- Now read: Disney: Let The Streaming Bonanza Begin
Original article