Disney CEO Michael Eisner declared himself "satisfied" with fiscal Q3 (April-June) as earnings per share rose 21% to $0.29 - - beating the Thompson One Analytics consensus by two cents. "The continued growth in our earnings this quarter, led by ESPN and our other cable networks, positions us well to deliver more than 50 percent growth in earnings for the year, as we predicted last quarter," declared Eisner. "Equally important, our strong earnings and cash flow growth demonstrate the overall strength of our businesses. During the recent downturn, we have remained focused on managing the Company for long term performance and extending the Disney legacy and we believe that the positive trends in our businesses validate that approach."
Total revenues for the company were up 17% to $7.47 billion. For Media Networks, which includes ABC, ESPN, cable networks and all of the ABC O&O radio and TV stations, revenues were up 8% for the quarter to 2.93 billion. Operating income rose 15% to $673 million.
At the O&O TV stations, CFO Tom Staggs said revenues were up 4% on the strength of higher political advertising. He added that the current quarter is also pacing ahead 4%.
The ABC O&O radio stations did even better. Staggs said revenues were up 5% for the quarter. He noted market share gains by the company's stations in Chicago and Washington, DC.
After reviewing how the ABC Television network did in this year's upfront, Disney President Bob Iger said only a slight improvement in ratings will be necessary to return the network to profitability. But he said that's not enough, and expressed confidence that the new management team "will take us back up to number one or number two in the ratings over time."
TVBR observation:
Things are still far from jolly in the Disney Kingdom, but every quarter that Eisner can show some improvement is a quarter that he is under less pressure to hit the road. The key, though, is fixing ABC. Nobody is yet promising when that will occur - - only that things may not be so dismal next season as they have been.
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