Shares fall with loss of streaming distribution

Stock prices of cable programmers AMC Networks, Discovery and Viacom dropped Wednesday after AT&T confirmed they were being dropped by DirecTV Now.

AMC Networks finished down nearly 5%, Discovery dropped more than 5% and Viacom fell 3.36%.

AT&T boosted the price of DirecTV Now to try to boost its profitability of the streaming service.

For programmers without the retransmission consent muscle of a broadcast network or powerful sports franchises, getting networks carried on the top virtual MVPDs is a key issue as Wall Street watches traditional pay TV subscription fall, taking revenue with them.

It’s worth nothing that DirecTV Now is carrying the networks it acquired when it bought Time Warner, including HBO, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, TNT and TruTV.