Jim Cramer has heard endless speculation about the death of old media. Judging by the results of both CBS and Time Warner, he started to wonder if it is the critics, not the networks, who have it all wrong.
"To me, after studying CBS and Time Warner, I believe there is plenty of room for digital to co-exist with regular old television," the "Mad Money" host said.
CBS made a strong case with its extraordinary numbers. Revenues were up 10 percent, operating income was up 14 percent to an all-time high of $821 million. While Cramer knows the Super Bowl pumped up those figures, it was clear regular programming and dramas on Showtime were sustainable stars.
The best part of the story for Cramer was that CBS is increasing its charge for ads, which jumped to 12 percent from an expected 9 percent during the quarter.
"That is surprising, given the lust for digital spending that so many advertisers profess," Cramer said.
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The story was just as good with Time Warner, which delivered $1.49 earnings per share when Wall Street only expected $1.30. Both sports programming and HBO Shows helped to generate an upside surprise.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes was under pressure from shareholders to spin off HBO to a standalone, just like Netflix, but it looked to Cramer that the decision to resist it was the right one.
"No one disputes that viewer habits have changed," Cramer said.
However, that doesn't mean there isn't room for both digital and television programming to co-exist. As for the stocks, Cramer thought CBS was cheap, though both would be worth buying into weakness.
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