Cable Stays Up Amid Big Media Losses.(Financial report)

By Claire Atkinson

Lone victories reported among poor quarterly reports

The downgrades, writedowns and red ink may be sinking big media companies' balance sheets, but cable operations are looking increasingly bouyant.

At News Corp., which lost $6.4 billion in the final quarter of 2008--and wrote down the value of its assets by $8.4 billion--cable networks reported a $91 million jump in operating income to $428 million when compared with the same period last year. Fox News Channel and Big Ten Network, among others, helped the 27% growth.

Similarly, Time Warner, which recorded a $16 billion loss in the fourth quarter, reported that television …