TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: News Corporation Reports Second Quarter Operating Income of $920 Mln


News Corporation Reports Second Quarter Operating Income of $920 Mln


Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Thu, 9 Feb 2006 00:28:17 -0500

News Corporation Reports Second Quarter Operating Income of $920
Million as Revenues Increase to $6.7 Billion; Income from
Continuing Operations Increases to $694 Million
- Feb 8, 2006 04:05 PM (BusinessWire)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2006--News Corporation

QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

-- Cable Network Programming operating income up 15% on
advertising growth at Fox News Channel and higher affiliate
revenues at the Regional Sports Networks.

-- Television operating income up 20% on strong revenue growth at
STAR and lower promotional costs at the FOX Network due to the
earlier launch of its fall lineup versus a year ago.

-- Filmed Entertainment delivers operating income of $299 million
on continued strength of home entertainment sales of film and
television titles. $108 million decrease versus prior year
reflects record home entertainment results in second quarter a
year ago.

-- New subscriber additions at SKY Italia improve operating
results by $52 million. At quarter end the subscriber base had
expanded to 3.6 million, an increase of 496,000 subscribers in
the past 12 months.

-- Newspaper operating income declines as $99 million in
redundancy costs associated with the printing project and
advertising weakness in the U.K. more than offsets the
inclusion of Queensland Press' results in Australia.

-- Increased contributions from the In-Store division drives
Magazines and Inserts operating income up 4% while an array of
bestsellers at HarperCollins raises Book Publishing operating
income 24%.

News Corporation today reported second quarter income from continuing
operations of $694 million, ($0.21 per share on a diluted combined
basis(1)), as compared with $386 million ($0.13 per share on a diluted
combined basis(1)) reported in the second quarter a year ago. These
results primarily reflect an increase in equity earnings of affiliates
and increased Other income from the unrealized change in fair value of
certain outstanding exchangeable debt securities partially offset by a
decrease in consolidated operating income.

(1) See supplemental financial data on page 14 for detail on earnings
per share

Consolidated operating income for the second quarter of $920
million was down 4% versus the $954 million reported a year ago,
primarily as a result of a $99 million redundancy provision recorded
this quarter in connection with the U.K. newspaper printing project,
as well as a reduction from the record Filmed Entertainment operating
income reported in the second quarter a year ago. These items more
than offset double-digit improvements from the Television, Cable
Network Programming, Direct Broadcast Satellite and Book Publishing
segments.

- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=55529641

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