quarterly reports

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company, which a day earlier announced that Kazuo Hirai will replace Howard Stringer as CEO and president effective April 1, said it predicts a net loss of 220 billion yen for the year through March, up from an earlier forecast of 90 billion yen.

The company says a big rise in auto advertising was the main contributor. Retrans revenue rose by 30%.

The company said the decrease was mostly due to “an expected and significant decrease” in political revenues in an off-election year. When factoring out political, broadcast revenues for the quarter increased nearly 9%.

But factoring out political results in a 9% revenue increase over last year’s quarter. Automotive and professional services categories were up 15% and 19%, respectively, while digital ad revenues rose by more than 50%.

Sony Corp. and rival Panasonic Corp. are set to report a slump in quarterly earnings and may cut full-year forecasts after being hit by yen strength, Thai floods and consumer gloom in Europe during the vital pre-Christmas period.

The fiscal year for Allbritton Communications ended on Sept. 31, so the results for the company are a bit different than the two-year political advertising cycle of its peers. Net operating revenues for fiscal 2011 were down 2.1% to $196,923.

The company, in the process of selling all its stations, posts a net loss for the third quarter of $432,000 compared to a $390,000 net loss for the third quarter of 2010.

Three months ago, when Big Media CEOs wrapped up their 2Q earnings, they were still relentlessly upbeat about the business. Any worries about the economy? Not then. But the messages they delivered over the past few weeks, as they discussed 3Q, were different. Although they’re still optimistic — remember, they’re paid to be salesmen — now and then you could hear expressions of concern about where things are headed.

The increase is driven by lower programming and production costs and higher network advertising revenues.

RTTNews — AMC Networks Inc. (AMCX: News ) reported net income for the third quarter of $40.0 million or $0.55 per share, compared to $25.3 million or $0.37 per share […]

But the $70 million was a 17% gain from the same period in 2009, the last non-election third quarter. Local was up 11%, national was down 6.6% and retrans grew 32%.

Strong increases in local and national core revenue as well as retrans and e-Media money overcame the loss of political ad revenue compared to last year’s quarter.

Toyota Motor Corp. declined Tuesday to give a forecast for the full financial year ending March 2012, citing uncertainties stemming from the Thai floods that have disrupted supplies of parts and prompted it to cut some car production.

However, excluding political ad revenue, its TV core advertising revenue increased 9% to $22.8 million with gains in professional services, retail and automotive categories. Retrans revenue increased 4%.

Discounting political, local ad revenue grew 7% while retrans money rose 16%.

The lack of both Olympics and political ad money from the year-earlier third quarter resulted in the decrease.

Increases in local, national and Internet revenue as well as higher retrans money can’t hold off lower political ad dollars.

Increased retransmission consent revenue and stronger ad performance can’t compensate for the lack of political dollars.

The increase is driven by a 34% increase in service revenues to more than $2 million.

Again, the big downer was political, but excluding that, total spot came in 2% lower. In addition,a double-digit percentage increase in combined retransmission and Internet revenue was offset by declines in network compensation and miscellaneous revenue.

Core local and national advertising sales combined, which excludes political advertising sales, were flat at $85 million.

The increase is attributed to stronger ad sales and a “greater than two-fold increase in retransmission consent revenues.”

Excluding political revenues, local net broadcast revenues were up 3.2% and national net broadcast revenues were down 8.9%.

The Philadelphia-based company reported net income of $908 million, or 33 cents per share, for the July-September period. That’s up from $867 million, or 31 cents per share, a year ago.

Even as Internet video viewing increases, the vast majority of American households are still paying for cable TV subscriptions and watching most video that way.

Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp. forecast an annual net loss of 420 billion yen ($5.5 billion), its biggest in a decade, as restructuring costs ballooned, and a soaring yen and weak demand in the United States and Europe eroded income.

That changes to a 3% increase when political is factored out. Automotive gained 4% in the quarter, while digital revenue was up over 25%.

But excluding political and issue ads, its core revenue was up 2.2%. Local rose from increases in retail, restaurants and automotive.