CABLE NETS DRIVING NEWS CORP PROFITS

Its Fox broadcast network may have a higher profile, but News Corp’s cable networks proved to be the driver of profits during its last quarter. The company reported that operating income at its cable outlets rose 17 percent to $993 million on revenue of $2.8 billion, largely as a result of solid ad sales for […]

SONY RETURNS TO THE BLACK AFTER FIVE YEARS

Sony Corp has posted its first full-year profit in five years, attributing much of its turn-around to the box office successes of its film and home-video divisions. The company reported full-year income of $458 million versus a loss of $5.7 billion a year ago. In particular the company cited the box-office success of The Amazing […]

DISNEY PROFITS DIP — BUT NOT AS BADLY AS EXPECTED

The Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday reported a 6-percent dip in profits to $1.38 billion for its first quarter, down from $1.46 billion during the year-ago period. Analysts had predicted a somewhat steeper decline. Disney blamed it principally on lower revenue from home-video titles and on $321 million in charges related to a lawsuit brought […]

NBC COMEBACK SHINES IN COMCAST’S THIRD-QUARTER RESULTS

Results for the new season barely made it into its third-quarter count, but Comcast said today (Friday) that its NBC unit showed a 31.2-percent increase in revenue for the quarter to $6.8 billion, and while a good chunk of that revenue was attributable to the network’s coverage of the Summer Olympics, Comcast noted that even […]

ATTENDANCE UP, TICKET PRICES UP — WHY NOT REVENUE, TOO?

Attendance at movie theaters may be up 9.2 percent from last year, but that percentage is not reflected in ticket-sales revenue of theater chains, reports have indicated. That anomaly left industry watchers scratching their heads even more on Friday when the National Association of Theatre Owners disclosed that the average price of a movie ticket […]

DOWNTURNS AT CABLE, FILM HIT VIACOM

Sumner Redstone, the chairman of CBS and Viacom, got good news and bad about his two media companies on Thursday. On the one hand, CBS reported record profits in the last quarter; on the other hand, Viacom’s profits sank. The blow to Redstone’s older and larger media conglomerate might have been less troubling had its […]

TIME WARNER REVENUE: WAITING FOR BATMAN

Without a Harry Potter or a Hangover sequel in theaters in the second quarter, Time Warner saw its net income plummet by a third to $430 million versus $638 million during the same quarter a year ago. Revenue was down 4.1 percent to $6.74 billion. Wall Street had anticipated the decline — and was no […]

GIANT SCREENS GENERATE GIANT PROFITS

IMAX today (Tuesday) reported earnings that were as big as its screens. Ticket sales at its venues during its second quarter rose to $96.5 million, up a whopping 197 percent from the $32.5 million that it reported for the same quarter of last year. What seems even more remarkable is its report that for the […]

WILL YOUTUBE GRAB AD DOLLARS AWAY FROM TV?

Google-owned YouTube could see revenue from advertising increase by 40 percent or more from a year ago, according to Capstone analyst Rory Maher. In an interview with AllThingsD.com columnist Peter Kafka, Maher observed that while YouTube has been attempting to persuade advertisers to move money budgeted for television to its site, which is increasingly offering […]

SONY LOSES RECORD $5.7 BILLION — BUT FILM STUDIO SOARS

Sony’s motion picture unit was the one bright spot on the parent company’s dismal annual SEC filing today (Thursday), which reported a record loss of $5.7 billion, including a loss of $3.2 billion in the most-recent quarter. Over the weekend, however, Sony Films became the year-long domestic box office leader, with $518.1 million in ticket […]

Next Page »