The media segment has had a pump during the global pandemic, there’s much potential heading forward.

Media industry is quite vast and brings a lot of opportunities for investors. The media companies produce and distributive movies, music, television shows, and series, and other programs.

In the past decade or so, the use of smartphones and digital media outlets have massively increased screen time. More users are spending time watching movies, T.V. shows, and streaming networks due to outside restrictions. People in the US are now spending around 13+ hours interacting with some form of media each day.

The evolution of social media has diversified traditional media companies. For instance, the media companies also have their streaming application or website, which is usually subscription-based. So, let’s have a look at the three top media stocks to watch for in 2021.

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) is a telecommunications giant that owns the famous media network NBCUniversal. The company also pays a dividend and in the recent quarterly report, the dividend was increased.

The company recently released its fourth-quarter 2020 results, which were quite impressive. The big media company recorded $27.71 billion in revenue during the quarter, beating the analyst estimates by nearly $1 billion. Though it was slightly down by 2% compared to the prior year. While the non-GAAP net income was $0.56 per share, which also surpassed estimates of $0.48 per share.

So, the company is improving its quarterly results and as a result, it has raised the dividend. The new dividend that would be paid to the shareholders is $0.25 per share. This is almost a 9% increase preceding $0.23.

The company has been quite active and has made notable developments recently. So, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) is one of the stocks to watch from the media sector.

Nexstar Media (NXST)

Another prominent telecom firm, Nexstar Media (NXDT) is one of the stocks from the media sector that investors should be looking forward to. Nexstar was ranked No.1 in Local News for all the 12-months in 2020. The average viewership for each month was a mammoth 90 million.

The company has gained a lot of attraction due to lockdown and the COVID times. The increase in average viewership soared over 70% year-over-year. The strong audience growth helped in record content engagement. Nexstar had almost 7.8 billion page views, up by 130% from 2019.

The rapid growth last year has led the company to increase the quarterly cash dividend. The company upgraded the cash dividend to $0.70 of its Class A common stock, which reflects a 25% increase. Nexstar has a dividend yield of 2.22%, as we write this.

ViacomCBS (VIAC)

The renowned mass media firm, ViacomCBS (VIAC) is another media company that investors should keep in-sight. Though the legacy TV network has been facing pressure from cord-cutting. However, there are several aspects that could potentially help the stock to rise.

The major aspect is ViacomCBS’ streaming aims, with a little support from marketwide short squeezes has helped the stock to soar quite high early in 2021. We can see more bullish sentiment around VIAC—in the coming days. That’s because, the company just generated $545 million in advertising spending during the NFL’s Super Bowl LV this past Sunday, as reported by Reuters. The commercial time during the entire game was for a record 57 minutes, with a 30-second ad sold around $5.6 million.

Another positive for ViacomCBS (VIAC) its dividend, with a yield of 1.70%, as of writing time.