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At least there weren’t any signs of it in Friday's session, where most of the big media issues saw little price movement. Remember, these are very big companies, and it’ll be a while before any effects of a prolonged strike are felt. Actually, Viacom (parent of Paramount) today reported an 80 percent increase in third-quarter earnings. Its stock gained almost 3 percent. The one significant loser today was CBS, which fell 2.1 percent. Its third-quarter earnings were better than expected but revenue was down. Speaking of CBS, CEO Les Moonves told analysts and investors that he was not worried about the threat of a Hollywood strike. "We are prepared with a full slate of first run programming now and at mid-season,” Moonves said. “The bottom line is this: in the event of a strike, we anticipate no material impact on the company for the remainder of the season." Hard-ball comments like that are sure to get the writers running back to the bargaining table. Anyway, here's the rundown on today's market action:
Time Warner -0.67%
News Corp. -0.49%
Disney +0.36%
CBS -2.1%
GE -0.02%
Sony +0.90%
Viacom +2.85%
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.