• by Wayne Friedman , August 18, 2011

More bad economic news resulted in another round of harsh and sharp percentage drops to many stock market indices on Thursday -- with media companies again feeling a bigger pinch.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrials was down 3.7% to just under 11,000, feeling the big wave of international banking concerns, poor unemployment numbers, and other factors. Big media companies sank lower. The Dow Jones U.S. Broadcasting & Entertainment index sank 5%to 429.78.

CBS was hit the hardest -- down 9.8% lower to $22.48. Companies like CBS, which are heavily advertising-dependent, typically feel the heat more than other media companies that derive revenues through other means.

Still, other big media was not immune to overall downward-signaling economic news: Time Warner sank 6.2% to $28.59; Sony was down 3.2% to $22.14; News Corp. was off 5.3% to $16.31; Viacom slipped 5.0%, settling $51.57; Comcast lost 4.9% to $20.28; and Disney fared the best of the worst, slipping 2.5% to $32.55.

Among other significant media companies' results, Discovery Communications lost 6.9% to $36.47; Gannett was down 10% to $8.42; Netflix went backwards 6.4% to $217.48; Cablevision was off 8.0% to $17.17; Belo Corp was down 4.7% to $5.27; and Dish Network was off 5.5% to $22.22.

One of the better performers -- Lionsgate -- was unchanged at $7.13.

While analysts believe the media stocks will continue to underperform the stock market as a whole, one executive believes now is the time to buy. Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne on Thursday repeated his attractive rating on the media industry, citing the strength of television assets and "above-average" capital returns.