It’s been a brutal week for cable package value, with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Paramount Global (PARA) both taking significant write-downs to the value of their respective cable businesses.

On Wednesday, WBD reported a massive $9.1 billion impairment charge related to its TV network unit following the loss of a key media rights deal with the NBA.

Paramount suffered a similar fate. The company announced on Thursday that it had to write down the value of its cable business by almost $6 billion. It cited “recent indicators in the linear affiliate market” as the reason.

These successive moves underscore the difficulties within the industry as more consumers forgo cable and companies focus their efforts on streaming, but that endeavor has proven quite difficult.

And although Paramount – together with Disney (DIS) – reported a profitable quarter for its streaming division this week, investors remain skeptical about the future development of the industry.

All three stocks are down year-to-date, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up 11%. Over the past year, Warner Bros. stock has lost 50%, while Paramount has lost a third of its value.

For years, linear advertising and affiliate fees had steadily increased revenue for these networks. The shift to streaming led to a decline in cable subscribers, which in turn hurt affiliate fees, and streaming companies now entering the advertising market have taken another leg out of that business.

“The timing of these impairments comes at a time when Paramount and Warner are under increasing pressure due to their outsized debt loads,” Third Bridge analyst Jamie Lumley wrote in an email to Yahoo Finance. “The impact on their tax obligations is certainly a factor as both companies look for any opportunity to stabilize their balance sheets.”

Lumley continued: “It was clear that the cable companies would not recover from their declines in revenue and profitability.”

Brandon Nispel, an analyst at KeyBanc, added that recent strategies by Paramount and other companies “seem to be geared toward shrinking to survive, likely putting the company’s potential growth to the test.”

Rumors are circulating about future strategic options that could include sales and splits. Paramount, for its part, is currently in the process of being acquired by Skydance, and the company announced this week that it expects the deal to close in the second quarter of next year.

And as the financing needs of an acquisition decrease due to impairments, now may be the time for these companies to start cleaning up their balance sheets.

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