Media Stocks Lose Big Amid Steep Market Sell-Off

Media stocks endured sizable losses on Thursday, the second day of a steep overall stock market drop.

The Dow Jones U.S. broadcasting and entertainment index was down a big 4.6% over Wednesday and Thursday to 1,252.07, while the Dow Jones U.S. Media Index also gave away 4.6% to 840.41.

This more or less followed the broader S&P 500 Index, which dropped 5.0% over the two-day period to 2,728. The Dow Jones Industrial Index lost 5.3% to 25,052 -- just under 1,400 points.

On Thursday, major media/communications/tech companies such as AT&T were among the big losers -- down 3.3% to $31.75. More pure TV companies -- CBS, Discovery, and Viacom -- also took on substantial declines, with CBS losing 3.1% to $53.82, Discovery off 3.2% to $31.02, and Viacom sinking 2.4% to $31.19.

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Big media technology/commerce companies also fell. Netflix took on more losses on Thursday -- down 1.5% to $321.10, losing 9.5% over the two-day period. On Thursday, Amazon was down 2% to $1,719, down 8.2% for the two-day period.

TV distributors were also among the big media losers on Thursday: Satellite/digital TV distributor Dish Network fell 3.6% to $31.87, while cable network group Charter Communications gave up 2.6% to $301.92.

TV station groups were not immune: Nexstar Media Group was down 3.9% to $73.92, while Tegna lost 1.9% to $11.22 and Tribune Media was also down 1.9% to $36.83. Sinclair Broadcast Group was off 1.2% to $27.94.

Three traditional media companies did somewhat better than the market overall: Comcast Corp lost 1.8% to $33.68; Walt Disney was down 1.5% to $111.15; and 21st Century Fox -- one of the rare gainers on the day -- was up 1.1% to $45.11.

Some media technology fared better-- or posted some gains -- reversing big losses the day before: Facebook up 1.3% to $153.35; and Twitter, 0.8% up to $27.00. Google was virtually flat -- down 0.2% to $1,079.

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