• by Wayne Friedman , October 10, 2013

Positive talks over the U.S. debt ceiling rocketed the stock market to large gains on Thursday -- with media stocks participating in those strong results.

Major business indices -- Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500 -- grew anywhere from 2.18% to 2.26% on the day. Dow Jones Index was up 322 points gain to 15,125 -- the second-best-performing day of the year.

A number of media stocks outperformed the market overall. CBS was 4.0% higher to $55.75; Time Warner gained 4.2% to 67.34; Walt Disney was 3.2% higher to $65.59; and News Corp. added 2.1% to $16.22.

Netflix was the top gainer in the media category, up 5.4% to $303.99. Netflix took off in part because of anticipation the company could gain better international business of its subscription video-on-demand content -- movies/TV -- through global broadband expansion.  

Cable TV operators also witnessed gains. Comcast Corp was up 2.3% to $45.35; Time Warner Cable grew 6.1% to $116.95; Charter Communications was up 3.4% to $136.93; and CenturyLink rose 3.6% higher to $33.34. TV station groups also were higher.

Sinclair Broadcast Group rose 2.0% to $33.04; Gannett Co. added 3.5% to $25.24; Media General rocketed up 8.1% to $14.09; LIN Media was up 3% to $22.32; and Nexstar Broadcasting Group rose 5.5% higher to $44.04 .