Media Stocks Hammered as Market Plummets

Media company stocks posted huge drops as Wall Street opened Monday with a plunge.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 900 points shortly after opening and was down more than 700 points in early trading.

The decline followed big drops at the end of next week. The drop was caused by concerns about economic growth in the U.S. compounded by worries about China, which devalued its currency, indicating a weak economy there.

Media stocks have been weak since the companies announced second-quarter earnings three weeks ago. The numbers raised fears that in addition to ad revenue growth being weak, that cord-cutting could threaten reliable growth in distribution revenue.

Crown Media was down more than 6% in morning trading, Discovery Communications and AMC Networks were down more than 5%; the Walt Disney Co., Viacom and 21st Century Fox were down more than 4%, Comcast, CBS, Time Warner and Scripps Networks were down more than 3%.

Netflix, whose stock has been a high flyer as consumers shifted to streaming video on demand from traditional TV, opened down more than 15%. In morning trading, it was down more than 8%.

(Photo via Ervins Strauhmanis's FlickrImage taken on Sept. 19, 2014 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.