Reckoning: Reality of Cord Cutting Drops Media Stocks

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

The news that cord-cutting is a much bigger problem than had previously been known or reported (except here at Breitbart News, where we have been covering this for years and not falling for the spin), roiled media stocks on Wednesday:

And Big Media companies are among the hardest hit: Discovery’s -9.5%, Time Warner’s -8.7%, Disney’s -8.6%, Viacom is -7.8% (and touched a 52-week low), Fox is -7.1%, Comcast is -4.7%, and CBS is -4.5%.

More broadly, DreamWorks Animation is down 11.9% after its disappointing earnings last night. Others hard hit include Madison Square Garden (-6.7%), AMC Networks (-6.7%), and Scripps Networks (-5.1%).

Reports are that as many as 3.2 million subscribers have abandoned cable television in favor of much cheaper streaming options, like Netflix..

Previously, media companies have been happy talking around this issue; downplaying the numbers and the cataclysmic affect these subscriber losses will have on their bottom line.

Most people have no idea how many billions of dollars these left-wing mega-corporations gouge the average American for every year. Or how much of the bottom line is dependent on the immoral racket known as bundled cable.

The reason your cable bill is so obscenely high is because these greedy companies are forcing you to pay for dozens, maybe hundreds, of channels you never watch. Whether you watch them or not, if left-wing networks like CNN, MSNBC, MTV, and ESPN are part of the package you are forced to purchase in order to get the channels you do want, you are subsidizing the rest.

CNN, MSNBC, and MTV could not survive on advertising alone because that revenue is set by viewership numbers, and nobody watches any of those left-wing networks. Instead, the networks are subsidized — by you — merely because they exist on so many cable packages. For example, whether you watch ESPN or not, if the sports channel is on your package, every month ESPN receives $6 from you.

That’s $72 a year you are paying for a service you never use.

Let me put it this way: NOT watching CNN has no effect on the network’s survival. If you want to put CNN out of business, you have to cut your cable cord.

Thankfully, as we have been predicting for some time here at Breitbart News, that is exactly what is happening, and as we’re seeing in today’s stock shock,  that these media companies are so reliant on this con that just a hint of trouble spooks investors to the tune of double-digit dips.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC               

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