Finishing up a dismal earnings season for media, News Corp reported a 70 per cent drop in net income to $300 million, excluding one-time events, and a 16 per cent drop in revenue to $7.37 billion for the quarter ended March 31st. Non-broadcast channels were the one bright spot with increased affiliate revenue for Fox […]

DirecTV has reported that first-quarter earnings fell 46 per cent even as subscriber growth hit a four-year high. Chief Executive Chase Carey said he expects intense competition to continue in the pay-TV business, as providers fight for consumers who have become more sensitive to price. Still, he predicted that customers will cut their spending to […]

US satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp has posted better than expected quarterly profit, despite losing 94,000 subscribers. Net income rose to $312.7 million from $258.6 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.1 per cent to $2.91 billion. Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen, attributed the subscriber loss to the weak economic environment, as well as […]

The slump in the U.S. car industry helped send Sirius XM Radio Inc. to a loss of $236.6 million in the first quarter and its first-ever quarterly decline in net subscriber additions. But the satellite radio company said it has enough access to financing and cash generated from operations to meet its debt obligations this […]

A weaker than expected performance by its films at the box office and through DVD sales depressed Disney's second-quarter profits. Operating income at Disney's studio business fell 97 per cent to $13 million. The recession also continued to depress earnings in other parts of the group, with advertising down at Disney's ABC television network. But […]

Norwegian teleco Telenor has reported a 65 per cent decline in first quarter net profits compared with a year earlier, hurt largely by its stake in Russian mobile operator VimpelCom. The group said net profit for the January through March period was 1.62 billion kroner ($248m) compared to 4.57 billion kroner a year earlier. Revenues […]

Discovery Communications reported an $8 million increase in first quarter revenues to $817 million, outstripping analysts expectations for the period and posting $119 million in profit. The company reported only $34 million in profit for the first quarter of 2008. Discovery even bucked the advertising slump, posting a two percent increase in ad revenues. As […]

Sales slightly down and losses increasing on Q1 to £123m (E138m) from £109m last time were the bad news while increased ARPU (£42.29 v £41.95) and a record low churn of 1.1% were the good news. Revenue for the quarter was £935.7m against £947.3m last time. But the underlying fall in broadband sign-ons – down […]

The board of directors of struggling satellite radio provider Sirius XM has approved a “stockholder rights plan” that would effectively prevent the weakened company from hostile takeovers. According to the terms of the plan, known in financial circles as a poison pill, any attempt to buy up more than 4.9 per cent of Sirius’ stock […]

Viacom profits fell 34 per cent in the first quarter, hurt by a global advertising spending slowdown. The company reported first quarter net profit of $177m, down from $270m, a year earlier. Revenue fell 7 per cent to $2.91bn. Advertising at Viacom's cable networks, which as a sector is considered the most resilient compared with […]