While the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 358 points Thursday, or 2.1 percent, Walt Disney and Viacom each fell 6 percent; Time Warner was off 5 percent; Sony and 21st Century Fox each fell 4 percent; Comcast was off 3 percent; and CBS dropped 2.5 percent.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, stocks in the media and entertainment sector have been sinking since Disney and others warned of slower growth for cable networks as an increasing number of U.S. consumers choose to scale back their pay TV habit, or drop it entirely.
Since August 4 when Disney reported its quarterly earnings, the conglomerate's stock has sunk 18 percent, a nearly unprecedented amount in only just 16 days. In the same time frame, Viacom is off 21 percent; Time Warner and Fox are each down 16 percent; CBS is off 13 percent; and Comcast is down 7 percent. Even Sony, which doesn't have a cable-networks business, is down 7 percent.
While media and entertainment have been suffering in August, Netflix was holding its own — not surprising since streaming is growing fast as traditional pay TV stagnates — but on Thursday its stock dropped 8 percent, wiping out all its recent gains.
In new-media, Facebook dropped 5 percent, Twitter was off 6 percent, Yahoo was down 3 percent and Google was down 2 percent. Game stocks also took it on the chin, with Take-Two Interactive Software and Activision Blizzard each sinking more than 3 percent.
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