In another era at Time Warner, before a star-crossed Internet merger, the hard-held belief of Gerald M. Levin, then the chief executive, was that “content is and will remain king, but distribution is the power behind the throne.”

These days the king seems to be losing his throne.

On Wednesday, Jeffrey L. Bewkes, who became chief executive in January, succeeding Richard D. Parsons, said that Time Warner would completely spin off its cable company, essentially shedding the pipes that have underpinned much of the company’s fortune.

Although the announcement was largely anticipated by Wall Street — it had earlier spun off a 16 percent stake to shareholders — it still underscored a profound philosophical shift.

For years, it was a widely held belief within Time Warner and the media business that there were real financial advantages to owning both the content — television shows and films — and the means of distributing it to people’s homes.

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