For its second-quarter
reporting period, Time Warner suffered a bit from its Warner Bros. movie unit, but results from its TV networks continued to be stronger.
Time Warner's TV networks -- including TBS, TNT,
CNN and HBO -- posted a 4% rise in revenue to $3.6 billion as a result of a 6% gain of $124 million from subscription revenues and slightly lower gains from ad revenues, up 2% or $26 million from the
second quarter of 2011.
Time Warner says the advertising results were both good and bad.
While there was improvement on Turner Broadcasting domestic entertainment networks due to
higher pricing and more NBA games, which grabbed bigger dollars, there were lower advertising results for its domestic news networks.
CNN has been hit with continued lower ratings, for
example, which has resulted in a senior executive departure.
In addition, Time Warner says the timing of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship didn't work well for its second-quarter
period. There was also the transfer of management of SI.com and Golf.com from Turner to Time Inc. in this period. Content revenues declined due to lower licensing revenues.
For HBO, the
company says subscription revenues benefitted primarily from higher domestic rates -- and to a lesser extent, international growth and subscriber increase.
At Warner Bros., revenue fell 8%
to $2.6 billion because last year's quarter had strong releases which included "The Hangover II" and the previous "Harry Potter" movie on home video. The studio's big summer hit, "The Dark Knight
Rises," did not open in the quarter. So far, the movie has pulled in $535 million in box office revenues.
Selling TV shows continues to be a strong business for Warner Bros., which will
have 16 returning series and nine new series on U.S. prime-time schedules during the upcoming fall season.
Other weakening news: Time Inc. magazine revenue sank 9% to $858 million, from
lower subscriptions and advertising. Combined with other losses at its magazine unit, overall the findings hit Time Warner's net income, which dropped 33% to $430 million. Total revenues dipped 4% to
$6.7 billion.
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