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Investors are singing the blues over cable giant Comcast, which on Thursday, July 25 reported a net loss of $209.6 million for the second fiscal quarter. That number compared unfavorably to the company's $35.2 million profit for the same period a year earlier. Comcast has been hammered by investment losses—$538.3 million, more or less—including stakes in AT&T Corporation and other high-tech companies.

The loss came despite a 16% gain in revenue, a total of $2.7 billion, mainly due to a 13% increase in advertising and to the addition of approximately 198,000 new subscribers during the quarter. Comcast, the third-largest cable provider in the US, has 2.7 million cable subscribers and 1.2 million broadband customers, and expects to add as many as 800,000 new subscribers in the coming year. The company's cash flow increased 25% to $866.6 million. Despite the loss, company president Brian Roberts described the quarter as "fabulous" and placed most of the blame on "one of the most depressed stock markets I can remember." Cable stocks have been declining all year as investors avoided technology companies with heavy debt. The recent bankruptcy and allegations of financial mismanagement at Adelphia Communications haven't helped.

Walt Disney Company is another media conglomerate that hasn't fared well on Wall Street, with its stock closing down on Friday, July 26. The company's dark predictions for the year were partially attributed to the Dow Jones' 193-point slide that day. Curiously, as news of Disney's cloudy predictions surfaced, the company's ABC News unit announced that it would no longer permit free use of video clips from its website, ABCNews.com. Instead, the clips will be available only to subscribers who pay a $4.95/month fee.

The selection of archived clips on the site will be expanded to include broadcasts of World News Tonight With Peter Jennings and Nightline. RealOne, operated by RealNetworks, Inc., will also offer ABC news and entertainment clips, for $9.95 a month. In a move intended to mollify its affiliates, ABC said that the Internet-accessible newscasts would be available the morning after they run on television. The decision is part of a larger tendency for media companies to charge for material they formerly provided for free on the Net. RealNetworks has 750,000 subscribers using its online news, sports, and entertainment services, according to several reports.