ESPN’s Woes to Overshadow Hit ‘Star Wars’ at Disney

Bloomberg: Disney shares dropped as much as 3.6 percent after BTIG downgraded the stock to sell, saying the owner of ESPN overpaid for sports rights at the expense of its cable-TV unit’s profitability. In a note titled “Even The Force Cannot Protect ESPN,” published on the day Disney’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” debuts in U.S. theaters, BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield said he now estimates that Disney’s fiscal 2017 cable operating profit will decline from a year earlier.