The news at a glance

Media: TV boosts Time Warner, Fox earnings

It’s all about cable, said Todd Spangler in Variety.com. Time Warner posted its third-quarter financials this week, announcing earnings of $1.18 billion, soundly beating Wall Street analysts’ forecast of $835 million. Overall, revenue at Time Warner’s film and TV entertainment units—which include Warner Bros. studios—dropped 7 percent. But the company’s TV networks—including TBS, TNT, CNN, and HBO—boosted their income by double digits and had their best quarterly profit ever. That helped offset year-on-year decreases not only at film unit Warner Bros., but also at Time Inc., the moribund magazine group slated to be spun off next year.

Time Warner’s not the only media giant relying on TV revenues, said Brent Lang in TheWrap.com. Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox also announced a third-quarter rise in television earnings but a dip in profits “because of a weaker film slate and investments in new cable networks like FXX and Fox Sports.” Despite mixed results, Fox also “beat Wall Street projections,” as quarterly earnings at its television unit soared 30 percent thanks to syndication sales of sitcom New Girl. Unlike Time Warner, Fox wasn’t dragged down by a struggling publishing unit; the entertainment giant unloaded its newspapers and publishing divisions in June.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Latest Videos FromThe Week

Watch full video here:

Twitter has gone public, said Olivia Oran in Reuters.com. The San Francisco–based social media firm officially began trading on the New York Stock Exchange this week, launching its initial public offering with a valuation of more than $14 billion. The microblogging platform had initially set its target price at $17 to $20, but “amid a red-hot market for initial public offerings,” the company hiked its goal this week to $23 to $25 a share as it aimed to raise $2 billion.

So much for that, said Ian Austen and David Gelles in NYTimes.com. Fairfax Financial Holdings, the insurance company that had made a $4.7 billion bid to take over BlackBerry, has abandoned its offer. The news this week sent the “once-mighty” smartphone-maker “into a tailspin,” causing shares to fall more than 16 percent. “Adding to the uncertainty and confusion was the company’s announcement that Thorsten Heins,” its CEO, had resigned. Instead of a takeover, Fairfax and other investors said they would invest $1 billion to help the company “restore its position in the smartphone market.”

The era of in-store video rentals is over, said Michael Calia in The Wall Street Journal. Dish Network said this week that it will shutter Blockbuster’s approximately 300 remaining retail sites and DVD mail distribution centers by early January. The chain “has had to contend with growing streaming and on-demand services that consumers can use without leaving their homes.” Dish “said it would retain licensing rights to the Blockbuster brand, including its video library, and that it would continue its Blockbuster @Home and On Demand services.”

Tesla shares tumbled this week after the electric-carmaker’s third-quarter results disappointed investors, said Dana Hull in the San Jose Mercury News. “Tesla said it is now making more than 550 cars a week” and delivered 5,500 cars in the third quarter. Wall Street had hoped for better. And since “the number of cars sold was less than the ‘whisper’ number on Wall Street,” Tesla shares dropped more than 11 percent in after-hours trading. “If this were any other stock, it would have beat expectations handily,” said analyst Andrea James of Dougherty & Co.

Explore More