Cable Stock Pounding Not Over Yet

Broadcasting & Cable cites industry's growing list of problems
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 19, 2007 3:07 PM CST
Cable Stock Pounding Not Over Yet
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin lostens during a hearing on localism, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007, at the FCC headquarters in Washington. Federal regulators on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007, approved a rule that would ban exclusive agreements that cable television operators have...   (Associated Press)

Cable stocks are getting beaten up badly thanks to a combination of factors—subscribers fleeing to satellite and other services, a general market gloom that is compounded for often-complicated cable stocks, and news that the FCC plans to beef up its oversight. Led by industry giant Comcast, the group's stocks are falling fast after rising steadily for several years, Broadcasting & Cable reports.

"I’ve never seen sentiment shift so violently, so quickly against the sector as has happened over the past three months," says one analyst. The FCC's quest to roll out a host of new regulations on cable, including some designed to lower rates and cap growth, is a particular problem. “This could not come at a worse time for cable operators," says another Wall Street observer.
(More cable TV stories.)

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