Is the golden age of television turning silver? (4/10/15)
News that General Electric was selling its financial unit and focusing on its industrial business sent the stock up 10% and helped propel markets higher for a third consecutive day.
The Dow gained 98 points, with 24 of its 30 components advancing; the S&P 500 Index rose 10; and the Nasdaq was up 21. Advancers led decliners by three to two on the NYSE and four to three on the Nasdaq. Treasury prices strengthened. Gold futures rose $11.00 to close at $1,204.60 an ounce. Crude oil gained $0.85 to settle at $51.64 a barrel.
For the week, the Dow added 1.66%, the S&P 500 Index advanced 1.7%, and the Nasdaq climbed 2.23%.
In other business news:
- General Electric announced that it would be selling the majority of its financial division, GE Capital, over the next two years. The division accounted for nearly half of GE’s profit; however, the industry is highly regulated, and the company believes it will be “increasingly difficult to generate acceptable returns going forward.” The company will also be buying back $50 billion in stock. GE’s shares (GE) jumped 10.80% on the news.
- Apple Watch preorders kicked off at 3:01 a.m. ET today, with the initial batch (due to be available on April 24) selling out in about five minutes. Wait times for some models of the watch are already stretching out to July. Apple’s stock (AAPL) edged up 0.43%.
- Shares of Gap (GPS) fell 3.72% after the company released disappointing same-store sales for its flagship brand. Overall, same-store sales across all brands rose 2%, but the increase was primarily driven by sales at Old Navy, which climbed 14%. Same-store sales for the Gap brand fell 7%, double analysts’ expectation of 7%.
- Business software maker Citrix Systems lowered its first quarter profit and sales outlook due to restructuring charges and the negative impact of a strong dollar. Shares of Citrix (CTXS) lost 1.32%.
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With the final season of Mad Men premiering last Sunday, people are debating whether or not the current “golden age of television” is winding down as well.
The current phase started in 1999 with The Sopranos debuting on HBO and continued with shows like Lost and Breaking Bad, shows that had many of us spending hours combing spoiler sites and discussing what the heck we just saw. (By the way, I’d like to wish all Lost fans a belated Happy Lost Day, which occurred on 4-8-15 at 16:23:42. And my TV geekiness just reached a new low.)
Creatively, the industry might be showing signs of weakness, as cable networks have started to go back to the well to build on previous ideas. Later this year, we’ll have a spinoff of The Walking Dead, and we just wrapped up the first season of the prequel to Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul.
But there are signs that the industry might eventually run into financial troubles as well, especially as viewers look for options outside of the regular cable bundle.
AMC, for example, makes a good chunk of its money through affiliate fees, or money paid to them by the cable operators. Mad Men was created because AMC need a hit—something that wasn’t available anywhere else and something that people would be passionate about—that would prevent cable operators from dropping the network. (Showing only classic American movies apparently wasn’t enough.) It’s a steady stream of income, because even people not watching Mad Men are subsidizing the show.
Most of these quality shows appear on cable or premium channels like HBO or Showtime, and many viewers are choosing to wait until shows make it to DVD or streaming services like Netflix. That, along with the push for unbundling cable channels, may reduce cable networks’ revenue stream to a trickle, meaning less money to make these high-caliber programs.
Looking at what’s coming up this weekend on my DVR (Game of Thrones!Silicon Valley!Veep!) and on Netflix (Daredevil!), I can make the argument that this golden age is far from getting old and turning silver. However, knowing that a Kardashian TV show still exists andReal Housewives of Whereveris a thing, I can understand how some think we’ve gone beyond silver to just plain tarnished.
