• by Wayne Friedman , August 6, 2015

For the second day in a row, TV-media stocks took a major hit -- all due to concerns over cord-cutting, as well as a weakening TV advertising marketplace.

One of the biggest hits came from Viacom, which was down a massive 22% in mid-day Thursday trading. In its most recent financial report, Viacom posted a big 9% decline in U.S. TV advertising revenue in its most recent quarter.

Other major media companies also witnessed big stock market price declines.

In midday Thursday trading, Time Warner was declining 4.7%; Walt Disney, off 5.3%; CBS, sinking 3.0%; AMC Networks, down 11.4%; Comcast, down 3.6%; Sinclair Broadcast Group down 6.1%; and 21st Century Fox, sinking 9.9%.

On the previous day, major media companies, such as Time Warner, Walt Disney, CBS, Comcast, 21st Century Fox, were down anywhere from 6% to 12%. For the last two weeks, media companies have been issuing weak quarterly financial reports -- many of which showed flat to declining advertising revenue in their recent quarterly periods..

Much of the initial media stock market price declines came from news that Walt Disney’s ESPN -- one of the strongest cable networks -- has been losing subscribers due to cord-cutting and cord-shaving.

For many Wall Street investors, all this confirms a changing TV ecosystem, with seemingly meaningful pay TV provider cord-cutting by consumers that is now a real and growing behavior.