NEW YORK (Reuters) – Time Warner Inc posted better-than-expected quarterly results on Wednesday, with revenue rising 6 percent alongside a surge in advertising sales at its cable TV networks.

Time Warner, which owns cable networks such as CNN and TBS, as well as magazines and a movie studio, is the latest media company to benefit from the strength of the advertising market. CBS Corp, Viacom Inc and Discovery Communications have all reported exceptionally strong results this quarter.

“I love the advertising numbers,” said Laura Martin, an analyst with Needham Capital. “It was an excellent number — really, they did a good job.”

For the first quarter, Time Warner reported net income of $651 million, or 59 cents per diluted common share. This compares to net income in the prior year quarter of $725 million, or 62 cents per diluted common share.

First-quarter adjusted earnings of 58 cents a share came in 2 cents above analyst consensus expectations.

The decline in profit was largely due to higher programing costs, specifically those related to its deal with CBS to share coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament, which carries costly rights fees.

But the flip side to the deal is it helped drive a big jump in advertising sales at its cable networks at a time when corporations appears willing to spend more on national campaigns, particularly when it comes to so-called event programing.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Comcast Corp and CBS Corp showed the TV business is even stronger than billed, reporting earnings that surpassed most forecasts and setting the stage for healthy price increases in the next round of ad sales.

Rising advertising rates come as a major relief for a TV business that was under heavy pressure coming out of the recession, when corporations cut their marketing budgets and consumers fell ever more deeply in love with social media.

Today, with the economy making progress and marketers willing to spend on national campaigns to promote cars, clothes and cell phones, the TV advertising market is blistering.

Need to buy some last-minute commercial time? Advertisers can expect to pay 30 percent to 40 percent more than they would have when buying time under longer term deals a year ago, according to executives.

CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves, whose company is the home to the most-watched U.S. broadcast network with hit shows such as “The Big Bang Theory,” predicted that rates for TV commercial time would rise by double digits during next month’s advanced sales period.

“We are very encouraged by the ongoing strength of the advertising marketplace,” he said on a conference call. “Broadcast television is still the best game in town.”

Ad revenue at the CBS network, when excluding two special events, the Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournament, was up 12 percent from 2010′s first quarter.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – CBS Corp (CBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, helped by healthy ad sales and higher profit margins, and doubled its dividend.

Shares of CBS, home to the most-watched U.S. broadcast network with hit shows such as “The Big Bang Theory,” rose about 4 percent after hours, extending a rally that has driven the stock up around 35 percent so far this year. Both first-quarter profit and revenue surpassed expectations.

CBS, which also has publishing, outdoor advertising and radio divisions, on Tuesday said advertising revenue was up 12 percent for its broadcast network, when excluding sales related to last year’s Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournament. This year, News Corp’s Fox broadcast the Super Bowl and Time Warner Inc’s (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Turner Broadcasting carried a chunk of the NCAA tournament.

CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone, on a conference call, described it as an “exceptional quarter,” a “terrific start to the year,” and praised Chief Executive Les Moonves as someone “I rightfully and frequently call a genius.”

Moonves was only slightly less spirited, saying he was confident that CBS could keep up its financial strength for the remainder of this year and into 2012.

After a dismal stretch during the recession, corporations are now spending more to promote cellphones, insurance plans, soda and jeans, particularly on TV and in digital media.

And CBS has the hottest television schedule in prime time, with hits such as “Survivor,” “The Mentalist” and “CSI” to go along with the “Two and a Half Men,” the hugely popular comedy that grabbed headlines when it parted company with actor Charlie Sheen.

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) – CBS Corp (CBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, helped by healthy ad sales and higher profit margins, and doubled its dividend.

Shares of CBS, home to the most-watched U.S. broadcast network with hit shows such as “The Big Bang Theory,” rose about 4 percent after hours, extending a rally that has driven the stock up around 35 percent so far this year. Both first-quarter profit and revenue surpassed expectations.

CBS, which also has publishing, outdoor advertising and radio divisions, on Tuesday said advertising revenue was up 12 percent for its broadcast network, when excluding sales related to last year’s Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournament. This year, News Corp’s Fox broadcast the Super Bowl and Time Warner Inc’s (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Turner Broadcasting carried a chunk of the NCAA tournament.

CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone, on a conference call, described it as an “exceptional quarter,” a “terrific start to the year,” and praised Chief Executive Les Moonves as someone “I rightfully and frequently call a genius.”

Moonves was only slightly less spirited, saying he was confident that CBS could keep up its financial strength for the remainder of this year and into 2012.

After a dismal stretch during the recession, corporations are now spending more to promote cellphones, insurance plans, soda and jeans, particularly on TV and in digital media.

And CBS has the hottest television schedule in prime time, with hits such as “Survivor,” “The Mentalist” and “CSI” to go along with the “Two and a Half Men,” the hugely popular comedy that grabbed headlines when it parted company with actor Charlie Sheen.

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) – The message from media companies is coming through loud and clear: TV advertising is back.

Only a few big media companies have reported earnings for the first three months of the year — Viacom Inc (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Discovery Communications Inc (DISCA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) among them — but the results show money streaming back into national television campaigns. U.S. ad sales skyrocketed 11 percent at Viacom.

Similar trends are expected to underpin the results of big media companies reporting this week, including News Corp (NWSA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Time Warner Inc (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), CBS Corp (CBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), owner of a majority stake in NBC Universal.

Encouraged by signs that companies are spending more to promote cell phones, insurance plans, soda and jeans, investors have pushed up the Standard & Poor’s Media index nearly 18 percent this year. CBS, the most sensitive to the ad market, is up a hearty 33 percent.

“It is a strong ad marketplace, another indication that the economy is getting stronger and that marketing budgets have gotten higher,” said Brad Adgate, an analyst at advertising and marketing firm Horizon Media.

TV executives, who have survived the dismal ad recession, can be forgiven for celebrating. Not only are they able to announce stellar quarterly earnings, but they find themselves in the driver’s seat heading into the most crucial period of the year for ad sales.

It is an annual stretch known as the upfront market, the period each May when the networks introduce their new prime-time schedule and begin negotiations for the majority of their advertising inventory. At stake for the four major broadcast networks — ABC, Fox, NBC, and CBS — is an estimated $8.5 billion to $9 billion in commitments.

NEW YORK, April 28 (Reuters) – Discovery Communications Inc (DISCA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), whose cable TV networks feature hits such as “Storm Chasers” and “Deadliest Catch,” reported an 80 percent rise in quarterly earnings and issued an upbeat full-year forecast.

Discovery, whose cable networks include Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet, was helped by the combination of a stronger advertising market and better audience ratings, particularly at Investigation Discovery, the fastest growing U.S. cable channel.

In response to an earnings report that showed better-than-expected profit and revenue, Discovery shares rose 2.6 percent in midday trade. It said earnings this year would be between $1 billion and $1.075 billion, topping the analyst consensus of $948 million.

Discovery’s U.S. advertising revenue rose about 15 percent in the quarter, and Chief Executive David Zaslav cited strength across a range of ad categories as well as solid ratings growth.

He said viewership rose 6 percent across its networks, with Investigation Discovery ratings up a 50 percent.

But Zaslav also acknowledged that ratings have failed to live up to expectations at one of its highest-profile ventures, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

A joint venture between Discovery and Oprah Winfrey’s production company, OWN launched in the United States early this year as a largely female-oriented network with a combination of lifestyle, advice and uplifting shows.

NEW YORK, April 28 (Reuters) – Time Warner Cable Inc’s (TWC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) quarterly profit rose 52 percent, fueled by a stronger advertising market and a big jump in subscriptions to its high-speed Internet service.

Time Warner Cable’s success in signing up more customers to its Internet and phone services softened the blow of the continuing loss of TV customers and lifted shares 1 percent to a 52-week high.

The No. 2 U.S. cable television operator dropped 65,000 basic video customers during the first quarter, but it is hardly alone. The entire cable industry faces competition for video customers from phone and satellite providers, not to mention Internet-based upstarts such as Netflix Inc (NFLX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Hulu.

Time Warner Cable has responded by expanding its presence in other areas, particularly high-speed Internet, where it added a better-than-expected 189,000 customers. Most analysts figured it would add closer to 125,000 to 165,000. Subscribers additions to its phone service also slipped by expectations at 84,000.

Chief Executive Glenn Britt said its high-speed Internet service “is quickly becoming the anchor product in the eyes of consumers,” and noted the service now has more than 10 million subscribers.

In light of those sorts of numbers, analysts and investors appeared to accept the loss of more video customers, particularly in the small number of cases when customers are dropping TV subscriptions to watch video over the Web, known as cord cutting.

Craig Moffett, an analyst with Bernstein Research, said in a note that “investors have grown more comfortable with the view that cable is, first and foremost, an infrastructure play, and that its broadband business will serve as a near perfect hedge against” cord-cutting.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Steve Jobs, responding to growing public pressure, broke Apple Inc’s silence on Wednesday to defend the iPhone’s use of location data and stressed that it had never tracked the movements of its customers.

Jobs, who is on medical leave, sought to control a firestorm that has broken out over whether Apple is monitoring the whereabouts of its customers, promising to adjust the mobile software to store less location data.

Jobs denied that it was tracking the movements of its iPhone customers during interviews with AllThingsD, a blog owned by News Corp, and others. He also said the company would look forward to testifying before Congress and other regulators.

Apple itself issued a similar denial on a day when privacy issues overshadowed news that it would begin selling a long-awaited white version of its marquee iPhone. Sales are due to begin on Thursday.

“Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. “Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.”

Still, Apple and Jobs, who is rarely seen or heard from these days, acknowledged that iPhones keep a database of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers. That information can then be used to help calculate location for applications such as maps.

At the moment, some of that location information is stored on each iPhone and is backed up in iTunes. This has raised concerns from privacy advocates, who say the process would make it possible, for instance, for someone with access to a person’s computer to retrieve information about their movements.