Disney's profit warning drags down media stocks

DISNEY-SUGAR

Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger said on Thursday the company's earnings per share for this year will roughly be in line with a year ago, dragging down shares of media stocks.

Iger also said Disney's streaming service would exclusively feature movies from blockbuster franchise "Star Wars" and Marvel films such as "Avengers" and "Iron Man."

Disney earned $5.72 per share in fiscal 2016. Analysts are expecting the company to earn $5.88 this year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company fell nearly 3 percent to a 10-month low, dragging down CBS Corp and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

Media companies are struggling as viewers migrate to streaming options offered by Netflix Inc, leaving behind traditional pay-TV packages.

Disney said last month it would launch its own streaming service and stop providing new movies to Netflix starting in 2019.

The company previously did not disclose the distribution plan for the films from superhero studio Marvel and "Star Wars" producer Lucasfilm after the deal with Netflix ends in 2018.

Iger made the comments at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2017 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Bernard Orr)