Time's Tough For Time Warner

Look out below: Time Warner expects to record a $25.0 billion charge during the fourth-quarter.

On Wednesday the New York-based media conglomerate said an impairment charge for its cable, publishing and AOL units would result in a fourth-quarter operating loss. The firm, which owns CNN, Time magazine and the Warner Brothers film studio, also cut its full-year outlook to between $1.04 and $1.07 per share.

Time Warner also said that its results, particularly for its AOL and publishing unit's advertising operations, had been pressured by economic conditions that were more difficult than initially anticipated.

The market didn't take the news well, pushing Time Warner's shares down 6.2%, or 68 cents, to $10.31, in early-morning trading.

The rest of the broadcasting sector got the message, though it fared little better: CBS (nyse: CBS - news - people ) dropped 4.7%, News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ) fell 5.0%, Walt Disney (nyse: DIS - news - people ) slipped 3.7% and Viacom (nyse: VIA - news - people ) tumbled 5.2%.

Also on Tuesday, Time Warner's (nyse: TWX - news - people ) cable-television arm Time Warner Cable (nyse: TWC - news - people ), said it expected to record a $15.0 billion non-cash impairment charge on its cable franchise rights in the fourth quarter, resulting in a loss for 2008.

Time Warner Cable, the nation's second largest cable television operator, added that it foresaw an impairment charge of approximately $350.0 million on its investment in wireless broadband provider, Clearwire (nasdaq: CLWR - news - people ).