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Hot August Write-Downs: Big Media Can’t Hide From Hard Decisions on Cable Valuations Any More
It may not have registered on the scale of the “MASH” finale or “Survivor” Season 1, but this was a landmark week for the business of television.
But even with streaming losses narrowed to $19 million for the quarter and new signs of life at the box office (thank you, “Deadpool and Wolverine” and “Inside Out 2”), Iger still faced hard questions from Wall Streeters about slowing activity at its theme parks. As Netflix appeared to plateau at around 230 million-250 million worldwide subscribers, Disney, WBD, Paramount and Comcast were forced by business gravity to moderate lofty ambitions of amassing as many as 500 million-plus paying customers around the world. “The appetite among advertisers to spend on linear cable networks outside of sports (and to a lesser extent, news) has simply gone away as eyeballs exit the ecosystem and digital alternatives grow in sophistication and reach,” Fishman wrote in a note after weak Q2 earnings set WBD’s stock price to an all-time low.
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