Tag: DAVID LIEBERMAN

Hard to say how investors will read the results: There are a lot of moving parts at Dish as it teases its wireless broadband plans, promotes its Hopper DVRs, and shutters Blockbuster stores — all while it manages its core satellite TV services business. But Q4 ended up with $209.1M in net income attributable to Dish, -33.1% vs the period last year, on revenues of $3.59B, -1.1%. The revenue figure is slightly better than the $3.56 that analysts expected. Earnings, at 46 cents a share, missed forecasts for 50 cents. The company’s press release and annual report this morning mostly discuss full year results, not the quarter. Dish says, though, that earnings were hurt by rising programming costs — which execs frequently decry — as well one-time items related to its many court room battles. It ended the year with 14.056M subscribers, an increase of 14,000 in the quarter, which is slightly better than some analysts expected. Dish says it had 800 Blockbuster stores at the end of 2012, and recently said it will close about 300 of them. The operation had an operating loss of $35.3M last year on revenues of $1.09B. “In addition to the landmark introductions of our Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR, the successful launch of dishNET and the developments with our wireless spectrum, one of our key stories of the year was the change in our customer trajectory,” CEO Joeseph Clayton says. “During 2012, Dish added about 89,000 net pay-TV subscribers after having lost approximately 166,000 net pay-TV subscribers in 2011.”

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/dish-network-q4-earnings/

This may be the key line in AMC Networks’ report this morning: Dish Network’s decision to drop AMC, IFC, WEtv, and Sundance Channel has cut the programmer’s total subscribers by 13% — but if the dispute isn’t resolved then the impact on cash flow and operating income “will be materially higher.” (Yesterday Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen was still talking tough, saying that his customers aren’t interested in AMC’s channels.) Yet the Q2 numbers, from the period before the fight with Dish broke open, aren’t bad. AMC generated $41.5M in net income, +52.9% vs the same period last year, on revenues of $327.6M, +12.2%. The revenue figure exceeds forecasts of $324.5M. And earnings at 58 cents a share beat the Street’s expectations by a penny. The domestic networks carried the ball with revenues +14.4% to $305.2M and operating income +21.6% to $111.3M. Ad sales grew 13.4% to $130M, while payments from cable and satellite companies were +15.2% to $176M.

But AMC has problems at its “International and Other” operation which includes its overseas channels, IFC Films, a broadcasting and technology unit, and VOOM HD. Revenues here were -13.1% to $26.3M with operating losses increasing 53.8% to $14.1M. The release sheds little light here, simply saying that it reflects declining revenues at IFC Films and the tech unit — as well as higher litigation expenses related to AMC’s $2.5B breach of contract suit against Dish for dropping the VOOM channels. Dish’s decision to drop AMC’s services is “directly related” to the suit, which goes to trial on September 18 in New York State Supreme Court, AMC chief Josh Sapan says. “Last month, the company received 36 Emmy Award nominations, more than any other basic cable television group,” he adds. “This critical reception helps drive the growth of our business and our financial performance.”

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/amc-networks-q2-earning/

Last year’s tsunami in Japan, the elections in Russia, and turmoil in the Middle East were the most popular topics for news watchers on YouTube in the 15 months that ended in March, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The group says that the Google-owned platform is beginning to become a major news source; in one third of the months in the study users searched for news terms more than anything else including entertainment. “The data reveal that a complex, symbiotic relationship has developed between citizens and news organizations on YouTube, a relationship that comes close to the continuous journalistic ‘dialogue’ many observers predicted would become the new journalism online,” Pew says. But it warns that videos often can’t be verified, or are copyrighted and used without permission, which ”creates the potential for news to be manufactured, or even falsified, without giving audiences much ability to know who produced it or how to verify it.” Pew says that personalities don’t necessarily drive interest in news: At least 65% of the most-watched news clips didn’t feature an individual.

Although the length of YouTube news videos varies, the median length of the most-watched ones was 2 minutes and 1 second — far longer than local TV news, where stories average 41 seconds, but less than the network evening newscasts where they average 2 minutes and 23 seconds. By and large audiences look for the same kinds of stories online that they see on TV, led by disasters. But Pew adds that protests — the second most popular topic on YouTube — were not as closely tracked on network newscasts. What’s more, “four subjects that might be described as less strictly visual—foreign affairs, economics, health and business—were all subjects that received more coverage on the evening programs than they did attention on YouTube.”

via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/07/youtube-news-viewers-flock-to-natural-disasters-and-political-upheaval-study/