UNLIKE SOME MEDIA COMPANIES, DISNEY HAD A SENSATIONAL YEAR

Other media companies may have faced a challenging 2014 amid frustrating ticket sales, higher rights costs, unexciting productions, advertiser caution, piracy, and overall consumer angst … but not the Walt Disney Co. On Thursday it reported that it ended its fiscal year with $7.5 billion profit, up 22 percent from 2013, on revenue of $48.81 billion — "the highest in the company’s history," it said. Profit in Disney’s fourth quarter rose to $1.5 billion, up 8 percent from a year ago. Virtually every Disney division showed increases over last year, with the conspicuous exception of ESPN, which was flat with last year, largely as a result of having to pay higher rights fees to the National Football League and Major League Baseball. Disney’s film studio and its theme parks particularly shone, with studio operating income more than doubling to $1.55 billion for the year, up from $661 million in 2013. Operating income at Disney’s theme parks rose 20 percent, largely due to higher ticket prices.