Nov 3 (Reuters) – CBS Corp reported stronger
quarterly profit on Thursday as its top-rated schedule of TV
shows helped keep up the flow of advertising dollars, even
without the political spending that boosted last year’s
results.

CBS, whose businesses include its namesake broadcast
network, a billboard division, book publishing and radio,
reported net income of $338 million, or 50 cents a share, up
from $317 million, or 46 cents a share, in the same period a
year ago.

By Paul Thomasch and Yinka Adegoke

(Reuters) – Comcast Corp, News Corp and Time Warner Inc reported stronger quarterly results on Wednesday, confirming it pays to have a solid lineup of cable networks — at least while advertisers keep spending.

Against all odds, advertisers continue to scoop up commercial time on television, and cable networks including Time Warner’s TNT, News Corp’s FX and Comcast’s USA have been major beneficiaries. Subscription fees have only helped.

2 (Reuters) – Comcast Corp and Time Warner
Inc. reported stronger quarterly results on Wednesday,
confirming that it pays to have a strong lineup of cable
networks — at least while advertisers keep spending.

Against all odds, advertisers continue to scoop up
commercial time on television, and cable networks such as Time
Warner’s TNT or Comcast’s USA have been major beneficiaries.
Subscription fees have only helped.

By Paul Thomasch

(Reuters) – Comcast Corp’s profit rose 5 percent thanks to healthy results from its cable business, calming recent worries that the industry was succumbing to pressures from a weak economy and poor housing market.

Comcast relied on its cable business to offset a weak quarter from two of its newer media properties, the NBC television network and Universal Pictures.

Nov 1 (Reuters) – Discovery Communications Inc
reported better-than-expected quarterly results and the media
company behind hit cable TV shows such as “Storm Chasers” and
“Deadliest Catch” bumped up its full-year outlook.

Discovery, whose cable networks include Discovery Channel,
TLC and Animal Planet, benefited from solid advertising sales
at both its domestic and international networks, showing no ill
effects from the grim economy. Revenues from fees it collects
from TV distributors also surged.

By Paul Thomasch

(Reuters) – The Major League Baseball season just ended, but the league is already weighing plans for a new television contract potentially worth more than $1 billion.

MLB’s current deals with ESPN, Fox and TBS expire after the 2013 season, and sources said all three networks are likely to be involved in the next round of negotiations, which are expected to begin this off-season. These people said NBC Universal and CBS are also interested in joining the talks.

Oct 31 (Reuters) – The Major League Baseball season just
ended, but the league is already weighing plans for a new
television contract potentially worth more than $1 billion.

MLB’s current deals with ESPN, Fox and TBS expire after the
2013 season, and sources said all three networks are likely to
be involved in the next round of negotiations, which are
expected to begin this off-season. These people said NBC
Universal and CBS are also interested in joining the talks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Number crunchers have come up with an unexpected conclusion about the National Basketball Association’s decision to cut short its season: There may actually be a few economic winners.

As NBA owners and players broke off talks this week, chances increased that the league will soon be forced to cancel more games, if not the entire season. Already, it has scrapped the preseason and the first two weeks of the regular season, frustrating fans from Los Angeles to Miami.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Anti-Wall Street protesters claimed victory on Friday when plans to clean the park they occupy were postponed, while police forces in financial capitals around the world braced for a weekend of rallies.

A planned cleanup of the Lower Manhattan park that has been home to the Occupy Wall Street movement since September 17 was delayed just hours before it was due to begin by Brookfield Office Properties, which manages the publicly accessible park.