Oliver Johnson
Trump Media & Technology Group on Tuesday announced plans to start a TV streaming platform to broadcast news, movies and other content that the company claims other media outlets refuse to show.
The announcement comes three weeks after Trump Media began trading on the Nasdaq stock market, briefly valuing the company at $10.8 billion. After peaking at $79.38 per share on March 26, the stock — which trades under the ticker DJT, the initials of former President Donald Trump — plunged nearly 70%.
The decline continued on Tuesday, with Trump Media shares falling $3.29, or 12.4%, to $23.32 in early afternoon trading. Its market value is now around $3.1 billion.
Trump Media’s main asset is Truth Social, the social media service that Trump created in 2022 after he was kicked off major platforms following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Since its founding, the company has aimed to create what it called “media power” with multiple platforms, including social media and digital streaming. Until now, however, the company had only introduced Truth Social.
The IPO helped bolster the loss-making company’s coffers, with Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes telling Fox Business earlier this month that it has “$200 million in the bank” to finance its plans.
The key to building a great media company will be building an audience, which in turn could convince advertisers to open their wallets. While Trump Media doesn’t disclose its user numbers, the service had about 494,000 monthly active users in February, compared with 142 million for Facebook and 75 million for X (formerly known as Twitter). according to for web data company Similarweb.
This may explain why Trump Media’s revenue last year was $4.1 million, or about half the annual sales recorded by a single average user. Chick-fil-A Location, while losing $58 million. Recent advertisers on Truth Social include groups like Patriots for America, a group that sells Trump hats, and USA Gear, which sells American flag hoodies.
Trump Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s streaming plans
Trump Media said its TV streaming platform will first be revealed on the Truth Social app before eventually coming to home TV streaming. The company did not provide a timeline for the launch.
“There is a lot of great content that simply can’t find an audience for unfair reasons, and we want these creators to know that they will soon have a guaranteed platform where they won’t be canceled. [sic],” said Nunes, a former Republican congressman from California.
The company added that its TV content will include “news networks, religious channels, family content including films and documentaries; and other content that has been canceled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services.”
Admittedly, conservative-leaning television networks already exist, including One America News Network (OANN) and the Christian Broadcast Network, which produces the 700 Club. And conservative commentator Tucker Carlson debuted his Tucker Carlson Network after separation paths with Fox News last year.
Falling share price
Meanwhile, one of Trump Media’s main assets – its publicly traded shares – continues to lose value. This is noteworthy because one way for a publicly traded company to raise additional capital is through a secondary sale of shares. If your shares become less valuable, it could harm your ability to raise money in the public market.
Trump Media Stock fell 18.4% on Monday after the company filed a regulatory filing that opens the door to the potential sale of millions more shares. The document, called an S-1, refers to warrants held by investors that can be turned into shares, as well as shares held by company insiders.
The former president’s 57% stake in his media business was valued at $1.8 billion on Tuesday afternoon, a sharp decline from the $6.3 billion valuation at the stock’s peak.
Trump Media shares are at risk of falling further, said Ben Emons, senior portfolio manager at NewEdge Wealth, in an April 15 research note. The price of warrants, which give their holders the right to buy shares at a certain price, has plummeted 43% since the March 26 peak and now indicates the share price could fall to $17.50, he said.
“There are many opportunities for DJT’s share price to recover, but it will likely fall first,” Emons added.
