quarterly reports

Auto continued its rebound in the last quarter, but other spot categories moved decidedly in the other direction, adding to broadcasters’ woes.

Disney saw direct-to-consumer losses shrink and adjusted EPS top estimates for the three months ended in June as CEO Bob Iger said the company’s on track to exceed $5.5 billion in anticipated cost savings. Total revenue of $22.3 billion (down 2%) was shy of forecasts. Linear television was softer — a trend Iger called out in a controversial CNBC interview last month.

Revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% to $93.7 million. The net loss was $48.8 million, or 51 cents a share, compared to an $8.9 million loss, or 10 cents a share, a year ago.

Tokyo-based Sony Corp.’s fiscal first quarter profit totaled 217 billion yen ($1.5 billion), down from 261 billion yen a year ago. Quarterly sales rose 33% to 2.96 trillion yen ($21 billion), as sales for the period grew in games and network services, the music business, financial services and imaging solutions.

Fox Corp. revenue stayed flat in the quarter ending June 30 compared with the year-earlier period, but it matched Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimate as earnings beat expectations. Earnings came in at 74 cents a share in the quarter ending June 30, topping analysts’ target of 72 cents and rising from 55 cents in the year-ago period. The revenue figure stayed flat with the 2022 quarter. Affiliate fee revenue climbed 3% from a year ago, paced by a 9% upswing in the TV division.

The total of $1.24 billion (down 0.4%) was driven by The CW acquisition that closed on Sept. 30, 2022, as well as growth in distribution and digital revenues.

Fubo reduced its second quarter loss as revenue per subscriber increased. Fubo’s second quarter loss shrunk to $49.9 million, or 17 cents a share, from $116.1 million, or 63 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 41% to $312.7 million. Fubo said it had 1.167 million North American subscribers, up 23% from a year ago, but down from 1.285 million at the end of the first quarter. Average revenue per subscriber rose 13% to $81.62, cutting its domestic loss to $41 million.

The decrease to $352 million was driven by lower core and political advertising. For the company as a whole, total 1Q revenue was $583 million, a decrease of 2%, or $11.6 million from a year ago.

The decrease to $813 million was not quite offset by increased core ad revenue. Lower retrans and political also contributed.

The increase to $273 million is powered by a 28% boost from its digital properties and higher local advertising and retrans revenue that offset lower national and political television ad dollars.

The decrease to $732 million is attributed to lower political advertising compared to 2022’s mid-term election cycle.

Warner Bros. Discovery reported spotty financial results in the second quarter, but delivered better-than-expected free cash flow. The company posted a loss per share of 51 cents, which was worse than the 42 cents expected by Wall Street analysts. Revenue dipped 4% from the prior-year quarter to come in at $10.358 billion, a shade less than the Street’s number. Ditto streaming subscriber numbers, which showed a loss of 1.8 million subscribers and a tally of 95.8 million.

The decrease to $768 million was led by 16% lower ad revenue, core revenue down 3% and lower distribution revenue.

Grupo Televisa reported a more than 95% slide in quarterly net profit on Tuesday as the broadcaster’s income from its joint venture with Univision slipped and satellite TV unit Sky saw increased disconnections. TelevisaUnivision, a firm that combines content with U.S. broadcaster Univision, saw net income drop in the first half of the year, Televisa said. TelevisaUnivision has rolled out a subscription-based streaming platform, ViX+, which has aimed to compete with established rivals such as Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video.

Comcast beat analyst estimates on Thursday when it reported its second quarter results, as higher pricing helped offset a continued slowdown in its broadband business. The company also said the number of subscribers for its streaming service Peacock nearly doubled to 24 million compared to the prior-year period, with revenue up 85% to $820 million. Still, losses from the streaming platform continued to weigh on NBCUniversal’s media business.

The company beat Wall Street’s $30.9 billion sales estimate by a hefty margin while launching Twitter rival Threads.

The parent of Snapchat has grappled with an ad slump and the challenges of being a smaller social media company in an intensely competitive environment.

The results for the April-June period released Tuesday by Google’s corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., reversed a financial downswing that had raised fears Google was losing its financial steam at the same time advances in artificial intelligence threatened to undercut the dominant search engine that powers its digital ad empire.

Led by Mexico, total revenue grew 11%, “continuing to drive our leadership position in Spanish-language streaming with ViX — all through a disciplined approach in which our core business continues to offset our investments in streaming,” said CEO Wade Davis.

The video streaming service added 5.9 million subscribers during the April-June period, according to numbers released Wednesday along with its latest quarterly financial results. The gains easily surpassed the roughly 2.2 million additional subscriber that analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had anticipating. Netflix ended June with 238.4 million worldwide subscriber.

The increase to $917 million is tagged to the absence of political revenue and Winter Olympics on NBC, the company’s largest Big 4 affiliate portfolio, as well as the Super Bowl airing on NBC last year compared to Fox stations this year.

Fox Corp. today reported a $50 million loss last quarter from a $290 million profit the year before mostly due to the cost of a legal settlement with Dominion Voting Services. Sales jumped 18% last quarter to $4.08 billion advertising revenues rose 43%, reflecting the impact of Super Bowl LVII, a higher volume of NFL games and continued growth at Tubi. Affiliate fee revenues increased 3% with 9%. Other revenue was essentially unchanged from the prior year quarter.

The increase to $1.3 billion was driven by The CW acquisition that closed on Sept. 30, 2022, as well as growth in distribution revenues.

Dish Network’s first-quarter earnings dropped as it lost more subscribers, both on its satellite service and its Sling TV streaming service. Analysts attributed some of the poor performance in part to a cyberattack that delayed the processing of payments and stalled customer service. Dish finished the quarter with 9.198 million pay TV subscribers, down 552,000 from the end of year and down more than 1 million from a year ago.

Fubo said it reduced its first-quarter loss despite losing about 160,000 domestic subscribers since the end of the year. The company’s results exceeded Wall Street expectations and Fubo shares jumped 32% in midday trading Friday. The company finished the quarter with 1.285 million North American subscribers, which is up  22% from a year ago.

The decrease to $312 million was driven by lower core and political advertising as well as distribution revenue. For the company as a whole, total 1Q revenue was $528 million, a decrease of 6.7%, or $37.9 million.

Warner Bros Discovery matched Wall Street estimates for revenue in the first quarter today, with $10.7 billion, but posted a wider-than-expected loss due to tough comparisons with the year-ago period. Net losses reached 44 cents a share, worse than the 5-cent loss analysts had forecast. Streaming, though, provided a rare bright spot, posting $50 million in EBITDA after several quarters in the red. The company pronounced it a “meaningful turn” and said it now expects the streaming operation to become profitable a year earlier than it expected.

The decrease to $801 million was fueled by lower core and political revenue and only a 1% rise in retransmission consent money.

The increase to $239 million is powered by a 28% boost from its digital properties and higher local advertising revenue that offset lower national and political television ad dollars.

Paramount Global missed first quarter revenue estimates on Thursday as it lost subscribers at its flagship streaming service and advertisers cut back on spending in a challenging economic environment. Shares of the New York-based company, formerly known as ViacomCBS, fell nearly 6% in trading before the bell after gaining more than 35% so far this year. Sales for its TV media segment declined 8% from a year earlier, with advertising revenue down 11%.

The decrease to $112.9 million is due to primarily to winter Olympics and Super Bowl advertising at the company’s NBC affiliates in the first quarter of 2022, as well as declines in retransmission, digital and political […]

Comcast reported a 4% year-over-year dip in revenue in the first quarter, to $29.7 billion, but still exceeded Wall Street forecasts. Analysts had expected $29.3 billion in revenue. Earnings per share, meanwhile, handily beat expectations at 92 cents. NBCU said streaming service Peacock is now at 22 million subscribers, up more than 60% from the same period in 2022. Revenue at Peacock increased 45% to $685 million, though losses continue to hit the balance sheet.

Roku shares traded higher after-hours on Wednesday after the company posted a smaller-than-expected loss for its first quarter on 2023 and beat Wall Street expectations on revenue. The streamer reported revenue of $741 million Wednesday, up 1% from the same period a year ago, following a warning by company leaders that sales would be wobbly heading into 2023. Platform revenue for the quarter, which is largely based on advertising sales and a subscription revenues split with partners, was $635 million, down 1% year-over-year, while device revenue was $106 million, up 18% year over year.

The world’s biggest free ad-supported streaming service saw ad revenue decline for a third straight quarter, with Alphabet reporting a 2.6% year-over-year ad sales drop for YouTube in 1Q to $6.69 billion. YouTube still narrowly outperformed equity analysts forecasts of $6.6 billion. It reported a 7.8% year-over-year revenue drop in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 and a 1.9% decline in 3Q.

An unprecedented downturn in Google’s digital ad revenue – the company’s main moneymaker for more than 20 years – came into sharper focus Tuesday with the release of the January-Marcy results for its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc.

The company reported quarterly profit of $18.3 billion, or $2.45 per share, beating Wall Street expectations for earnings of $2.24 a share.