Disappointing second quarter earnings results from a handful of broadcast companies and concerns over consumers ditching paid TV services have sent the media exchange traded fund plummeting.
The PowerShares Dynamic Media Portfolio (NYSEArca: PBS), which tracks U.S. media companies, plunged 4.0% Thursday after falling off 1.9% Wednesday. PBS also broke below its long-term, 200-day level on Thursday.
Earlier in the week, Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) caught investors off guard and revealed a weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue, reports Cecile Daurat for Bloomberg.
Additionally, the entertainment giant cut its forecast for cable-television profits, adding to market concerns over the declining trend in pay-TV packages. American consumers have been cutting the cord and have opted for online video streaming services, such as those provided by Netflix (NasdaqGS: NFLX) or smaller packages.
The media industry experienced an even steeper sell off Thursday, following the disappointing results from Viacom (NasdaqGS: VIA.B) and 21st Century Fox (NasdaqGS: FOX), the Wall Street Journal reports.
DISH Network Corp (NasdaqGS: DISH) revealed that its satellite TV subscriber losses quickened over the second quarter, declining by 81,000 to 13.9 million, or almost double the loss of 44,000 a year ago, CNBC reports.
“Media stocks are getting slaughtered,” Aaron Clark, a portfolio manager at GW&K Investment Management, told the WSJ. “It’s been the long-running fear that we would eventually see cord-cutting. Everyone thought it would be a slow-moving train wreck, but Disney’s comment woke people up.”
Investors are also losing confidence in the industry as media companies revealed shrinking U.S. ad sales and profits that were supported by share repurchases.
Adding to the market volatility, investors were already wary ahead of the July U.S.jobs report due Friday as the markets wait on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook.
PBS includes a position 5.4% in DIS, 4.2% in VIA.B and 5.2% in DISH.
PowerShares Dynamic Media Portfolio
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Max Chen contributed to this article.