Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Time Warner 2Q profits jump 14 percent

Time Warner posted impressive second-quarter earnings Wednesday, as sales growth climbed to its highest rate for the conglom since the third quarter of 2007.Second quarter profits were up 14 percent to come in at $638 million during the three-month period, ended June 30, while revenue rose 10 percent to $7.03 billion.Stronger advertising sales and subscriptions at Time Warner's TV division, its largest business unit that includes CNN, TNT, TBS and HBO, boosted revenue by 9 percent to $3.5 billion.Subscription revenue at HBO, helped by ''Game of Thrones,'' grew 7 percent. Ad sales at other channels were up 11 percent, while syndication sales of shows like ''True Blood,'' and other content revenue was up another 18 percent.Hits at Warner Bros. that included ''The Hangover Part II'' and homevideo sales of ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part I" helped the film studio rack up a 13 percent boost in revenue to $2.8 billion. Videogame sales of ''Mortal Kombat'' also boosted biz for the division, a growing arm at the company, which is readying to bow tentpole title ''Batman: Arkham City.''Meanwhile, Time Inc.'s publishing arm saw revenue rise 3 percent to $946 million from a 2 percent growth in subs, 1 percent increase in ads and a 56 percent growth in content revenue.Time Warner chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said growth prospects encouraged the company to buy back $2.3 billion of its shares so far in 2011.He added that the company was planning to invest further in new programming and marketing to grow its audience.''Our continued investment in our content and brands is paying off,'' Bewkes said. Contact Marc Graser at marc.graser@variety.com

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