What the Bear Market Means for the Media Sector
variety.comAndrew Wallenstein President and Chief Media AnalystWith the outlook for the global economy getting gloomier by the minute, there’s ample expectation that a recession could be in the offing.But whether there is or isn’t one is besides the point for Naveen Sarma, senior director of S&P Global Ratings, a veteran credit analyst focused on the media business.
An economic downturn doesn’t have to cross into recession territory in order to have consequences for the entertainment and technology industries in myriad ways.“If consumers feel stressed and stretched, and they choose to cut back on spending, that ultimately will impact the media and entertainment sector even if there isn’t a recession,” said Sarma on the latest episode of Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast. Listen to the podcast here:From advertising to cord-cutting, there’s all sorts of indicators he’s keeping an eye on as a bear market takes hold.
Chief among his concerns is all the streaming services fighting for subscription dollars that may find competition stiffen if there’s less dollars to go around.“What happens when you go into a recession and consumers look at how much they’re spending on the streaming services, they’re spending a lot of money and they decide they’re going to cut back on the number of services or they’re not going to stick around as long as they previously did,” said Sarma.
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