Two of America’s biggest television companies have admitted that their cable channels are worth $15bn less than they had thought, highlighting the accelerating collapse of what had once been one of the most lucrative businesses in media history.

Paramount on Thursday wrote down the value of its cable channels — which include MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central — by $6bn. This came just 24 hours after Warner Bros Discovery wrote off $9bn of the value of its cable channels, including CNN, HGTV and the Food Network. 

The writedowns offered a stark insight into legacy entertainment companies’ struggles to cope with the decline of cable TV more than 15 years after streaming services first prompted users to “cut the cord”. For decades, cable provided healthy advertising revenue and generous carriage fees, which companies used to fund acquisitions and investment into movies, theme parks and other businesses.