• by Wayne Friedman , May 3, 2017

First-quarter national TV advertising revenue at Time Warner’s Turner TV networks had a slight drop versus the same period the year before.

Turner advertising revenues were down 2% to $22 million. The company says the decline was primarily due to lower viewing delivery at certain domestic networks.

Some of this was partially offset by advertising gains at Turner’s sports and news businesses and growth at Turner’s international networks. Recently, CNN has seen major viewing and advertising gains, according to estimates. NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball programming across TBS, TNT, truTV and CBS increased 16%,

Overall revenue at Turner was up 6% ($182 million) to $3.1 billion, with almost all this gain coming from a $175 million improvement in subscription revenues -- which in total was up 12% versus the the first quarter of 2016.

Subscription revenues benefited from higher domestic rates and growth at Turner’s international networks, partially offset by lower domestic subscribers. Many cable networks have recently been hit with lower subscribers anywhere from 2% to 4% or more.

Warner Bros. revenue grew 8% to $3.4 billion. Theatrical revenues grew as a result of strong releases including “Kong: Skull Island” and “The LEGO Batman Movie,” as well as higher home entertainment revenues.

HBO’s revenue was up 4% ($62 million) to $1.6 billion, largely coming from a 5% gain ($66 million) in subscription revenues. At HBO, there was a 1% drop ($4 million) from content revenues.

Company-wide Time Warner revenue grew 6% to $7.7 billion, with net income 18% higher to $1.4 billion.

AT&T's proposed $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner is still under review with federal regulators.