Media companies’ stocks were getting hammered on Thursday, after earnings reports made clear that many are suffering a major exodus as pay-TV subscribers cut the cord, raising concerns about the long-term outlook for the entire sector.

Viacom Inc. US:VIA led the decliners, trading down more than 20% at its worst levels, after the company reported fiscal third-quarter sales that missed expectations.

The selloff extends a 7.5% slide on Wednesday, and brings the stock’s three-month loss to 41%. In contrast, the S&P 500 has gained 0.3% the last three months, and rival video-streaming service provider Netflix Inc.’s NFLX, +3.70% stock has soared 56%.

“We’re in a mature-to-declining kind of linear TV business as we know it,” said Dish Network Corp. DISH, -3.41% Chief Executive Charlie Ergen on an earnings call Wednesday. “We think we’re at the beginning stages of an OTT business that’s going to grow and accelerate.”

DISH shares were down 2.5% Thursday, after the company said it lost 81,000 pay-TV subscribers during its second quarter, compared with a 44,000 loss in the same period a year ago.

Viacom’s colorful Chairman Sumner Redstone Getty Images

Shares of Time Warner Inc. US:TWX, which owns the HBO network, were down about 5% at a nine-month low, extending a 9% loss suffered Wednesday. The company told analysts on a conference call that its recently launched standalone streaming service, HBO Now, will likely generate losses for the remainder of the year.

Chief Financial Officer Howard Averill said that it is typical of an early-stage subscriber business. On a brighter note, for now, less than 1 % of HBO pay-TV subscribers have unbundled to switch to HBO Now, he said.

Analysts said the selling of Time Warner stock is overdone as the company has plenty of ammunition to deal with the changing world..

“Media stocks have suffered in recent days as concerns mount about the cable network ecostructure and the possible implications of declining pay-TV subscribers,” said MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler. “That said, we believe HBO’s growth opportunities remain significant as it builds a larger global subscriber base as does the potential with Warner Bros. as it rolls out its major franchise strategy (DC Comics, Harry Potter, Lego).”

Wunderlich analyst Matthew Harrigan agreed.

“We believe that yesterday’s 9% selloff on buy-rated Time Warner following its Q2 beat was very unwarranted,” said Harrigan. “We expect a near-term rebound as TWX’s high quality earnings and brands should not place the stock in the same bracket as media names with suspect operational momentum.”

Elsewhere, shares of 21st Century Fox FOXA, -4.22% dropped more than 12% following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report in which it revised its guidance for 2016.

Analysts at J.P. Morgan Chase said they were disappointed by the revision, which calls for mid-single digit growth in EBITDA, or earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization, a measure of cash flow. The lower outlook is below the current consensus.

“While longer term we are not deterred in our view on the outlook given the company’s scale/leverage, sports rights, and valuable content, we believe shares may be range bound until conviction grows on these estimates and potentially better growth down the road,” analysts wrote.

Shares of CBS Corp. US:CBS also saw a decline, falling a little more than 4% as the company waits for subscriber growth to pick up in its streaming segments.

CBS did not provide any specifics on subscriber numbers, but during the company’s earnings call, CEO Leslie Moonves pointed to the potential “90 million” U.S. households able to subscribe to the company’s new standalone Showtime service.

“Capturing just a small percentage of these subscribers will begin to pay off immediately and will lead to a tremendous upside for us,” Moonves said.

Analysts at J.P. Morgan said that amid ballooning cord-cutting concerns in the industry, CBS is “better positioned than many of its peers and is relatively immune to these current concerns.”

The Walt Disney Co. DIS, -2.50% shares fell 5%, adding to Wednesday’s 9% drop after Chief Executive Bob Iger gave a full-court defense of the company’s sports network ESPN during its conference call.

“We’re realists about the business and about the impact technology has had on how product is distributed, marketed and consumed,” Iger said, before touting ESPN’s strong brand and high demand for its service.

Iger said he doesn’t really see any dramatic declines happening over the next five years in the multichannel universe to warrant a move to over-the-top streaming.