Why war really sucks: big companies are going to lose their TV ads.

Broadcasters were still hedging their bets Wednesday evening about just how much advertising might be lost as the networks go into war news overdrive, but the financial reality was becoming increasingly apparent to investors.
Assuming the first two to three days of the war will see 100 percent of programming preempted by coverage with the subsequent four days ceding around 50 percent of airtime to commercial-free programming, Disney, Fox and AOL Time Warner could lose up to $200 million in total revenues from reduced advertising and travel-related businesses, investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates.
Using the cost of Gulf War and post-9/11 coverage as a comparison, calculations by Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto put the all-in cost impact of continuous network TV war coverage at anywhere from $5 million to $20 million per day, depending on the company.

Yes, fuck the cost of human suffering that war will almost certainly bring, obviously the cost of lost advertising is a far greater concern. Let's all feel sorry for the poor media conglomerates, give them a patronising clap on the back and say "AWWWW!"