People watch stocks for different reasons -- they're waiting for a dip in price, watching for a specific catalyst, gathering all the news and information that might affect stocks they already own, or considering a sell. Regardless of their motivation, we can better understand market sentiment by seeing who's watching what. With the Fool's free My Watchlist service, we have tens of thousands of people telling us the businesses that have, for whatever reason, piqued their interest.

The most-watched media stock is ...
Looking at the aggregate data, we see that Disney (NYSE: DIS) is above the rest in terms of watch interest, the percentage of people keeping an eye on media stocks in general who are specifically watching each company. And for good reason. As CAPS player rangerdan3 wrote two weeks ago:

Disney is a classic...even in recession its theme parks, hotels, cruise ships are packed. Kids pay $75 a day to go to Disney world and adults $83.
They are into time shares and hotels from Hawaii to Orlando and they are building more and more...and filling then. In the last quarter it froze in Orlando, The US was still in recession.. and revenue grew 8%....
A new Disney venture is Disney family adventures.... conducted tours for the whole family all over the globe.
Its film and entertainment Disney, Pixar, Marvel are producing top quality films for the family...and the characters created are quickly franchised into the toy market. Then there is TV...from Disney ABC to ESPN.
Gee, did I leave something out.....

Here are the rest of the 15 most-watched companies in the industry with their watch interest along with the stocks' CAPS rating to show the sentiment of our investing community.

 

Company

Market Cap (millions)

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

Watch Interest

1

Disney

$81,375

****

26.6%

2

DreamWorks Animation

$2,320

*****

23.5%

3

SIRIUS XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI)

$6,506

**

11.1%

4

Morningstar

$2,955

****

6.1%

5

IMAX (Nasdaq: IMAX)

$2,060

***

4.8%

6

Time Warner

$38,828

**

1.7%

7

China MediaExpress (Nasdaq: CCME)

$440

**

1.5%

8

ReachLocal (Nasdaq: RLOC)

$565

***

1.4%

9

Crown Media Holdings (Nasdaq: CRWN)

$784

**

1.2%

10

DIRECTV

$37,228

**

1.0%

11

Time Warner Cable

$24,768

**

1.0%

12

Gannett

$3,700

**

0.8%

13

World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE)

$927

**

0.6%

14

The Interpublic Group

$6,174

****

0.6%

15

China Yida

$149

**

0.5%

Sources: Motley Fool, Motley Fool CAPS.

Whether you're keeping an eye on the industry stalwarts like Disney or are watching an up-and-comer like ReachLocal, it pays to watch. We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service. Click here to start now.