quarterly reports

On a same-station basis, excluding political, the acquisitive station group reported local core broadcast revenue was up 10.8%, while national net broadcast revenues were down 3.1%, versus the fourth quarter of 2012, in part due to account shifts from national to local.

GM rode record North American earnings to a profit of $913 million, or 57 cents per share. That compares with $892 million, or 54 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 3 percent to $40.5 billion. Excluding one-time items, including a $700 million charge to exit the Chevrolet brand in Europe, GM made 67 cents per share. But analysts polled by FactSet expected 88 cents on revenue of $40.8 billion.

The gain was helped by higher retransmission consent money, advertising in sports programming despite fewer political dollars and lower broadcast network ratings.

Local revenues, which include net local advertising revenues, retransmission consent fee revenues and TV station website revenues, increased 14% in the fourth quarter to $115.8 million, while national revenue rose 10% to $36 million. Those gains were offset by a plunge in political from $46 million to $3 million.

Sony reported a net profit of $266 million in the third quarter of FY2013, compared with a loss of $106 million the same period the previous year.

ABC struggled, with revenues falling 2% to $1.5 billion and operating income down 32% to $178 million. Ad sales were hurt by lower ratings. The broadcast operations also had higher writeoffs for programming, and higher costs including a “contractual rate increase” for Modern Family.

The revenue drop is due to political ad comparisons from a year ago. Factor that out and TV rev was up 23.4%. In addition, retrans jumped 31.5%.

The drop is due to expected lower political ad dollars and was almost offset by strong non-political ad performance and higher retrans revenue.

The full-year drop is primarily due to the lack of Super Bowl and Olympics revenue. Factor that out and 2013 was up 5%, due mostly to increased retrans money

NEW YORK (AP) — Satellite TV broadcaster Dish Network Corp. posted a loss for the third quarter due to an expensive legal settlement, but subscriber trends improved as it continued […]

Broadcasting revenues for the quarter were $248 million, down from $264 million during the same period last year. Ad revenue fell by $9 million. The company cited weakness at WPIX New York, WDCW Washingon and at WGN Chicago, where sports advertising revenue declined due to lower baseball ratings. Retransmission fees were up for the quarter.

Media measurement company Rentrak posted a 30% rise in revenue for its fiscal second quarter that resulted from its home entertainment and TV products, while narrowing its net losses to just over half a million dollars.

Increases in national and local spot, plus higher retrans and digital revenue help offset the expected shortfall in political dollars.

Total revenue is $14 million, an increase of 94% when compared to $7.2 million for the prior year’s third quarter; excluding revenues from Hego, with whom the company merged in May 2013, revenue increased 23%.

Broadcast revenue rose to $1.37 billion. Overall, the company’s net income was $1.39 billion, or 77 cents per share. That’s up from $1.24 billion, or 68 cents per share, in the same months a year ago. Revenue grew 7% to $11.57 billion.

The expected shortfall in odd-numbered-year political advertising dragged down revenue for the quarter, but local advertising, retrans and Internet revenue were all up.

The drop to $641 million is due to lower political ad dollars in this non-election year. The TV network posted a 13% revenue gain, while cable networks were up 37% to $596 million.

Lower political and retransmission consent revenue, coupled with increased operating expenses  are the culprits.

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) said Tuesday that its third-quarter loss narrowed, helped by contributions from an acquisition this summer and higher revenue from its cable TV […]

On a same-station basis, excluding political, the acquisitive station group reported local core broadcast revenue was up 14% in the quarter, year over year, while national core revenue was basically flat.

Local revenues, which include net local advertising revenues, retransmission consent fee revenues and TV station website revenues, increased 44% to $105.5 million, while national revenue rose 26% to $32.8 million.

Revenue rose 18% to $7.06 billion, helped by better-than-expected growth from its TV businesses at home and abroad. Wall Street expected $6.82 billion. The company said investments in new channels, including the launch of Fox Sports 1 and FXX in the U.S., hurt its profit in its fiscal first quarter.

The company’s four full-power and four low-power stations account for $4.8 million, down from $4.9 million a year ago.

The expanding group’s core revenue growth of 44% was supplemented by a 69.4% rise in retrans as well as a 124% jump in digital media revenue.

Excluding political and Olympics revenue, same-station core revenue increased 5% in the quarler. Same-station local was up 2%, while same-station national grew 0.7%.

Core spot revenue was down 1.3% with a decrease in national spot of 3% and local spot basically flat. The decline in core spot revenue was primarily due to the non-returning Olympics revenue from the third quarter of 2012. Drivers include a 28% rise in retrans money and 21% growth in Internet advertising.

Drop is due to lack of Olympics and political advertising; factoring that out, core local and national sales increased 7.6%. Retrans money grew 41%, while digital revenue was up 21%.

Now we can see why the No. 2 cable company backed down this summer in the retransmission consent contract fight with CBS. Time Warner Cable says this morning that it lost 306,000 video subscribers in the third quarter — which included the 32-day period when CBS stations and channels went dark on its systems.

Without Olympics revenue from last year, the broadcast TV segment’s revenue was down 41% in the third quarter, according to the earnings report from parent Comcast. But when the Olympics are factored out, revenue rose, driven by both higher retransmission consent fees and ad dollars.

Thomson Reuters Corp. said today that new sales of its financial terminals outpaced cancellations in the third quarter for the first time since 2011, and it announced 3,000 job cuts to reduce costs.

Univision Communications’s third quarter net revenues rose 10.1% to $692.7 million from $628.9 million in 2012. Among its various units, TV revenues grew; radio was flat and digital revs dropped. It saw momentum from network ratings and cable launches.

The total during the company’s fiscal 1Q 2014 of $89.6 million is up from $87.2 million in the same period last year, despite a big drop in political advertising. Retransmission consent revenue helped make up the difference.

The video service said on Monday that it had surpassed 30 million U.S. subscribers and it reported third-quarter results that beat most expectations.