Revenues Up at Discovery

February 10, 2010 World Screen

SILVER SPRING: Discovery Communications reported a 7-percent increase in its fourth-quarter revenues to $964 million, led by gains at its international networks.

In the quarter, revenues at the international networks jumped 22 percent to $358 million, while the U.S. networks showed a gain of 3 percent to $554 million. Net income in the period increased to $155 million.

For the year, meanwhile, there was a 2-percent revenue gain to $3.5 billion, including a 4-percent increase at the U.S. networks to $2.1 billion and a 3-percent rise at the international networks to $1.2 billion. Full year profit almost doubled to $552 million.

David Zaslav, Discovery’s president and CEO, said, "The strength of Discovery’s performance throughout 2009 reflected the quality of our distribution platform and content assets and our focus on delivering real operating leverage. The affiliate fees we generate across the globe provided consistent resiliency throughout this past year, while the ratings growth across our networks and the value of our unique content enabled advertising to grow despite the weak environment."

He continued: "As we look to 2010, we remain focused on further monetizing our ratings momentum in an improving advertising environment, continuing to strengthen our distribution platforms and relationships and, most importantly, delivering high-quality content to our viewers."