Mediatwits 168: Cord-cutting gains steam, as media stocks tumble

We’ve covered cord-cutting from cable for years, but now there’s no doubt about it: it’s real, it’s here and media giants will need to get used to it. Variety reported that pay TV had its worst-ever quarterly subscriber declines in the second quarter, losing more than 500,000 subscribers. The number of pay TV households is now shrinking nearly 1% per year, according to MoffettNathanson. And media companies, in case you hadn’t heard, took a beating last week. It all started when Disney executives revealed that cable and satellite subscriptions are down. In a conference call, Disney’s CEO said he’d consider selling ESPN to direct consumers if subscriptions continued drop. This caused investors to sell off shares in Disney, Time Warner, Viacom, Dish Network and 21st Century Fox, which lost nearly $60 billion in value over three days. Naturally, the woes of paid TV didn’t hurt Netflix which saw its stock price spike as other media stocks slid. This comes following last month’s stronger than expected earnings report for the company. Netflix also reported strong subscription numbers touting its original programming. Joining us this week to discuss the future of pay TV and streaming are Jeanine Poggi of Ad Age; Eric Elia of Cainkade: Trey Williams of MarketWatch; and regular Andrew Lih of American University. MediaShift’s Mark Glaser will host, with Jefferson Yen producing.