What happened
E.W. Scripps (SSP +0.51%) saw its stock price drop about 17.1% this week as of Friday at 12:40 p.m. ET, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The stock had been down as much as 19% earlier in the week, and Scripps was down roughly 55% year to date.
It was not a particularly good week for the markets overall as the S&P 500 was off 1.2%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.7%, as of Friday at 12:40 p.m. ET.
So what
Scripps is one of the largest owners of local television stations, with a portfolio of 61 stations in 41 markets. It also owns several broadcast networks, including Court TV, Scripps News, ION, Bounce, ION Mystery, and Laff.
The decline this week stems from an ongoing dispute between Walt Disney and Charter Communications' Spectrum cable business.
NASDAQ: SSP
Key Data Points
Cable operators like Spectrum pay a fee to networks like Disney for their content to be on their systems, but the two sides have been at odds as Disney is seeking to increase its fees, but in return, Spectrum wants free access for its customers to Disney's streaming services.
As a result, no deal has been agreed to, leaving Spectrum customers without Disney's channels, like ESPN and ABC, among others, while Disney misses out from not being on these major cable platforms.
There have been such disputes in the past, and they usually get settled. But with streaming services becoming a huge competitor to cable, the answers are more complicated in a changing TV landscape.
The dispute has had the effect of bringing down many TV stocks like Scripps. While it isn't in any such dispute with a cable company right now, investors might see the Disney/Spectrum battle as a sign of things to come.
Now what
For the third quarter, Scripps is anticipating local media revenue to be down in the range of mid-single-digit percentages year over year and networks revenue to be down about 10% year over year.
The stock is coming off a second quarter where it had a net loss of $682 million, or $8.10 per share, due primarily to a noncash goodwill impairment charge of $686 million. Revenue was down 2% year over year.
The stock is extremely cheap with a price-to-sales ratio of 0.21 and a price-to-book ratio of 0.49. But advertising has been down, and with the revenue outlook muted, the stock could continue to struggle in the near term.
