Trump Media Stock Plummets After Truth Social Announces Live TV Streaming Platform

This story originally appeared on Quartz.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the company behind former President Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, fell sharply again Tuesday after it announced that it’s launching a streaming platform.

Truth Social will stream live TV, the company said, including news, religious channels, “family-friendly content,” as well as “other content that has been canceled, is at risk of cancellation, or is being suppressed on other platforms and services. Trump Media said that much like Truth Social itself, the streaming platform will be “independent of Big Tech.”

Trump Media stock dropped more than 10% and traded at $23.85 per share in mid-morning trading Tuesday following the announcement. That brings the company’s market capitalization to below $3.4 billion — cutting its market valuation by more than half since its first-trading-week highs.

The company said the streaming service is “expected to greatly enhance and expand Truth Social, an iconic Trump brand whose free-speech mission resonates deeply with its community of users and supporters.” Truth Social had 7.7 million total visits last month, according to data aggregator SimilarWeb.

“With our streaming content, we aim to provide a permanent home for high-quality news and entertainment that face discrimination by other channels and content delivery services,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said in a statement Tuesday. “There is a lot of great content that simply can’t find an audience for unjust reasons, and we want to let these creators know they’ll soon have a guaranteed platform where they won’t be canceled.”

Trump Media, the company behind Truth Social, went public on the Nasdaq under the ticker DJT on March 26, after completing its merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

Only a week after its red-hot debut, Trump Media stock began to nosedive after the company disclosed a loss from operations of almost $16 million in 2023, plus interest expense of $39.4 million, while bringing in just $4.1 million in revenue. That’s compared with a loss from operations of $23.2 million, plus interest expense of $2 million, on $1.5 million in revenue in 2022, according to regulatory filings.

Its stock continued its free-fall this week after Trump Media registered the resale of substantially all of its outstanding securities. Shares held by certain insiders remain subject to lock-up agreement that will expire in August or September.

Nunes, who previously served as a Republican congressman from California, said in an interview on Fox News earlier this month that the company is “well positioned” despite concerns over its profitability. He did not say at the time when he expects the company to be profitable.