quarterly reports

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.

But when political and Olympic spending are factored out, that translates into a 13.6% increase. In addition, retrans revenue grew 62.8%, for a total of $198.5 million in TV revenue.

It says it expects revenue to be $87.8 million to $88.3 million compared to $102.9 million in last year’s third quarter.

Broadcasting revenues for the quarter were $260 million, down from $327 million during the same period last year. Ad revenue fell by $17 million, or 7%. The company cited weakness at WPIX New York and at WGN Chicago, where sports advertising revenue declined in lockstep with the fortunes of Chicago’s baseball teams. Retransmission fees were the bright spot for broadcasting, up 15% for the quarter.

Overall revenue was off just 1.3% with increases in retrans and digital revenues nearly offsetting the sharp 86% decrease in political advertising and the weak core spot returns. Retrans was up 38%; digital, 17%.

This is the first quarterly report following the merger of Chyron and Hego. Excluding merger costs, operating profit is $900,000.

The expected shortfall in odd-numbered-year political advertising dragged down revenue for the quarter, but local and national core spot were up around 5%,

The company’s net income jumps 87%. For the April-June period, Time Warner Inc. earned $771 million, or 81 cents per share. That’s up from $413 million, or 42 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts had expected 76 cents per share.

On a same-station basis, the acquisitive station group reported local core broadcast revenue was up 12.5% in the quarter, year over year, while national core revenue was up 4.3%.

Boosted by new station acquisitions, the group’s core first quarter revenue growth of 38.4% was supplemented by a 65.5% rise in retrans as well as a 65.5% jump in e-media revenue.

Revenue from the stations was flat at $1.1 billion, as higher retrans fees were offset by smaller audiences for American Idol and X-Factor. Excluding the spun-off divisions and one-time items, 21st Century Fox posted a profit of 31 cents per share. Revenue rose 16% to $7.21 billion.

Broadcast revenue was unchanged at nearly $1.5 billion. Overall, the company earned $1.85 billion, or $1.01 per share, in the fiscal third quarter. That compares with $1.83 billion, or $1.01 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were $1.03 per share in the latest quarter, surpassing Wall Street’s expectations.

The company’s four full-power and four low-power stations account for $5.2 million, up from $4.5 million a year ago.

Overall, TV revenue was down 4.9%, to $111.4 million, with the shortfall in political spending unable to offset a 34% gain in retransmission consent revenue from $7.8 million to $10.5 million. The television division’s segment profit in the second quarter was $30.5 million, compared to $34.9 million in the year-ago period.

Growth in advertising demand across many product categories and increased retransmission revenues combined to offset a $5.3 million decline in political ad revenue.

The rise comes from higher local ad revenue and retransmission consent money. Walter F. Ulloa, chairman-CEO: “Core revenue … from our television and radio segments outperformed their respective industry averages, and we improved our free cash flow over the second quarter of 2012.”

Time Warner Cable saw revenues climb 2.7% to $5.5 billion while profits rose 14.7% to $1.64 per share for the second quarter. Analysts had anticipated revenues of  $5.58 billion for the quarter and earnings per share of $1.66.

However, the bump in profitability may not be enough to please hedge fund investor Daniel Loeb, who is agitating for a spin-off of the entertaiment businesses.

The drop to $698 million is due to lower political ad dollars in this non-election year. The TV network posted an 11% revenue gain to $2 billion, while cable networks were up 16% to $518 million. The broadcaster benefited from licensing its shows to online streaming providers such as Netflix Inc. and from increasing the money it receives from cable and satellite TV distributors to retransmit CBS programming on customers’ lineups.

Increases in local revenue, especially auto, help offset declines in national, especially media and restaurants.

The increase to $1.7 billion was driven by a 13% increase in advertising revenue, primarily reflecting higher primetime ratings at the NBC broadcast network, and higher retransmission consent fees.