Media/Telecom 2025 Leaders & Laggards
Davis Hebert, CFA - Co-Head HY Research, Head of Telecom/Media, CreditSights
Hunter Martin, CFA - Head of Media/Cable, CreditSights
Erick Vega, CFA - Senior Analyst, Telecom Infrastructure, CreditSights
Savannah Buzzeo - Analyst, Telecom/Media, CreditSights
Brian McKenna - Analyst, Telecom & Media/Cable, CreditSights
28 July 2025
Insights into 2025 Media and Telecom Sector Leaders and Laggards, including:
- Top performing companies and catalysts: Learn which telecom, cable, satellite, and media issuers led the sector in 2025 and the key drivers—such as M&A activity, deleveraging, and regulatory changes—behind their outperformance.
- Underperformers and sector headwinds: Understand which companies lagged this year and the competitive, financial, and operational challenges that contributed to their weak results.
- Bond and equity market performance review: Explore how leading and lagging issuers fared across both bond and equity markets, including excess return figures and the factors shaping investor sentiment.
- Impact of M&A and regulatory shifts: Discover how major mergers, acquisitions, and deregulation are reshaping the landscape, affecting valuations, capital structures, and strategic positioning within the sector.
- Market outlook and investment implications: Review expert perspectives on future trends, including the effects of digital transformation, defense spending, and continued industry consolidation on the media and telecom investment environment.
Executive Summary
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IG Cable/Telecom outperforms on Charter/Cox merger. IG Communications outperformed the market year-to-date with an excess return of 0.5% versus 0.1% for the IG Index, driven by cable (1.4%) as towers (0.1%) and wireless (0.0%) performed more in-line. Charter secured (+3.8%) was the top performer by a large margin on the news it would acquire peer Cox (-0.7%) in a deleveraging transaction. However, outside the merger, IG Communications performed generally in-line with the IG index, with performance ranging from American Tower (0.3%) to Crown Castle (-0.2%).
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IG Media weighed down by WBD disaster. IG Media (excluding Cable) significantly underperformed the market year-to-date with an excess return of -2.2% versus +0.1% for the IG Index. The poor performance was entirely attributable to Warner Bros. Discovery (-8.2%), which was downgraded to junk (exiting the IG index on June 30th), following the announcement of a plan to spin-off its streaming/studios operations and related tenders/coercive exchanges. Outside WBD, IG Media posted an excess return of 0.1%, in line with the IG Index, led by strong-balance-sheet names (News Corp, Netflix and Omnicom) as well as a surprising performance by Paramount (0.4%).
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HY Telecom has been a top performer. Our HY Communications index is up 5% in total return to date, outperforming the HY index, which is up 4% over the same time period. Telecom is up 5%, with M&A supporting FTTH valuations (e.g., VZ/Frontier, AT&T/Lumen) and ABS offering capital raising alternatives.
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Telecom/Cable/Sat Equity Performance
We include key equities in our telecom/cable/satellite universe below, ranked by YTD 2025 change in stock price. If we looked at a weighted average performance (using market capitalization), the list of names below are +10% for the year, compared to +4% for the S&P 500, reflecting a robust M&A environment in FTTH (e.g., Verizon/Frontier, AT&T/Lumen, BCE/Ziply), as well as cable (Charter/Cox) and satellite (SES/Intelsat). The robust consolidation backdrop has overshadowed continued headwinds in the business from intense competition and high capital intensity. Meanwhile, satellite companies have benefited from a ramp in defense spending across the globe, as well as tempered expectations from Starlink after Elon Musk’s fallout with President Trump.
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