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Old media dinosaurs actually had a great year, especially in TV

Old media dinosaurs actually had a great year, especially in TV

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Daily Show Jon Stewart on DirecTV and Viacom
Daily Show Jon Stewart on DirecTV and Viacom

It's often said that traditional media giants' best days are behind them and that unbundling and cord cutting will only accelerate their demise. But a savvy piece from The New York Time's David Carr points out that many of these legacy titans just had a really, really good year. While the S&P 500 was up around 13 percent for the year, stocks for names like Viacom, News Corp. Disney and Time Warner all beat the market, in some cases doubling or tripling its gains. What's behind this performance? Well, no big dumb moves into digital (like acquiring Myspace or merging with AOL). And while the Netflix and Hulus of the world have certainly changed the game, they didn't topple TV's traditional kings. In fact, tech companies like Netflix, Amazon, Google and many others are adding to the bottom line of cable companies and networks by paying hefty fees for the right to stream all that great content.