US Media Sector’s Anxiety Eases Amid Election Ad Haul

Financial Times: It was as if the past nine months never happened. The anxiety that has swept the U.S. media sector since last summer, driven by concerns about cord-cutting, falling cable television audiences and declining advertising revenues, dissipated this week as some of its biggest companies reported healthy rebounds in television ratings and spending by brands. The question for network owners is whether these larger audiences can be sustained beyond November — or whether they are indicative of a one-off, election-related blip.