CUT & PASTED

Viewer losses leaving Comcast, Disney

Comcast and Disney shares tanked Thursday after top executives at the media giants said cord cutting continues to slam their results.

Comcast got hit harder, in response to Executive VP Matthew Strauss’ prediction that the country’s largest cable company could lose 100,000 to 150,000 video subscribers this quarter.

The stock plunged 6.2 percent — its sharpest decline in six years — to close at $38.60.

Disney, whose ESPN network has been dogged by subscriber losses, wasn’t far behind, its shares falling 4.4 percent to close at $97.06. CEO Bob Iger admitted that fiscal 2017 earnings per share would be “roughly in line” with the $5.72 generated in fiscal 2016.

Analysts had been expecting a 3 percent gain, which would have taken Disney’s EPSto $5.88 for the fiscal year ending Oct. 1.

The disconcerting comments were madeat an investor conference hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Beverly Hills, Calif. But they were part of presentations showing the companies moving in different directions.

Investors dinged Comcast for being comfortable — if not complacent — as a traditional media company. Yet they took down Disney for seeking to reinvent itself as an over-the-top distributor of its own content.

Comcast’s Strauss admitted that with skinny bundles and over-the-top options proliferating, the quarter was the most competitive in memory. But he also blamed some anticipated subscription losses on “terrible storms” in Texas and Florida, two key Comcast territories.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker blamed Comcast’s stock dip on Strauss’ lack of clarity about subscriber trends.

“Unfortunately, we don’t know how much is competition and how much is weather,” she wrote in an update.

Iger also blamed the weather, in part, for the flat EPS forecast for Disney’s fiscal year.

Hurricane Irma is causing cancellations at Disney World in Orlando and has jettisoned three Disney Cruises.

Moreover, Disney lacked a major “Star Wars” feature this year and is absorbing the cost of ESPN’s new $1.4 billion-ayear contract to broadcast NBA games — almost three times the amount paid under the previous deal.

Disney’s investment in BAMTech — the company that powers streaming for MLB, HBO, NHL and WWE — was cited as an earnings drag as well.

“We saw in that platform exactly what we needed,” Iger said of the cornerstone of Disney’s ambitious videostreaming plans, which include two direct-to-consumer apps — one for Disney and one for ESPN — to be launched over the next two years.

The Disney app will serve as the company’s traditional pay-TV window — a com- mitment reinforced by Iger’s announcing the service would also stream Disney’s “Star Wars” and Marvel productions.

As of last month, the company was undecided about whether it would continue to license the premium content to Netflix.

But on Thursday Iger said, “We’re going to launch big and we’re going to launch hot.”