MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company?s net profit increased 14 per cent to $1.24 billion for the fiscal-fourth quarter driven by parks and resorts segment. The company had posted a net profit of $1.08 billion in the year ago period for the same quarter.

The American media conglomerate?s total revenue for quarter grew by 3 per cent to $10.78 billion up from $10.42 billion in the same quarter of the trailing fiscal. Its segment operating income grew 11 per cent to $2.33 billion compared to $2.1 billion in the year ago period.

For the full fiscal ended 29 September, the company?s net profit grew 11 per cent to $5.6 billion from $4.8 billion in the corresponding fiscal. Revenue increased 3 per cent to $42.27 billion from $40.8 billion in the trailing fiscal.

"Fiscal 2012 was a great year creatively, financially and strategically, resulting in record revenue, net income, and earnings per share," said Disney Chairman and CEO Robert A. Iger. "The addition of Lucasfilm will further fuel Disney?s creative engine across our company to create additional value for our shareholders and we?re confident the Company is well positioned to continue our strong performance and growth."

Last month, Walt Disney had acquired Lucasfilm in a stock and cash transaction for $4.05 billion. The company had also announced that it will create a new Star Wars movie to be released in 2015.

Cable Networks

Operating income at Cable Networks increased $471 million to $5.7 billion for the year due to growth at ESPN and the worldwide Disney Channels and an increase in equity income. The increase at ESPN was driven by higher affiliate and advertising revenue, partially offset by higher programming costs. Growth at the worldwide Disney Channels was driven by higher affiliate revenue due to contractual rate increases domestically and subscriber growth internationally.

For the quarter, operating income at Cable Networks increased by $118 million to $1.4 billion due to growth at ESPN, higher equity income at AETN, and improvement at ABC Family, partially offset by lower operating income at the domestic Disney Channels.

The increase at ESPN reflected higher contractual rates for affiliate fees, decreased marketing costs, and higher equity income at the ESPN Star Sports joint venture due to lower programming costs. These increases were partially offset by higher programming costs driven by contractual rate increases for college football and Major League Baseball and expanded rights for the Wimbledon Championships.

Broadcasting

Operating income at Broadcasting remained relatively flat at $915 million for the year as higher program sales, lower programming and production costs and higher affiliate and royalty revenue were largely offset by lower advertising revenues and higher equity losses at Hulu.

For the quarter, operating income at Broadcasting decreased $9 million to $192 million driven by a decline in ABC Television Network advertising revenues due to lower ratings and higher equity losses at Hulu, partially offset by higher program sales driven by Castle and Wipeout.

Parks and Resorts

Parks and Resorts revenue for the year increased 10 per cent to $12.9 billion and segment operating income increased 22 per cent to $1.9 billion. For the quarter, revenues increased 9 per cent to $3.4 billion and segment operating income increased 18 per cent to $497 million.

Results for the year reflected increases at domestic parks and resorts, Tokyo Disney Resort, Disney Cruise Line and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, partially offset by a decrease at Disneyland Paris.

Studio Entertainment

Studio Entertainment revenues for the year decreased 8 per cent to $5.8 billion and segment operating income increased 17 per cent to $722 million. For the quarter, revenues decreased 4 per cent to $1.4 billion and segment operating income decreased 32 per cent to $80 million.

The revenue decline for the year was driven by fewer theatrical releases in the current year and lower home entertainment sales volume. Higher operating income for the year was driven by increases in domestic theatrical and worldwide television distribution, partially offset by higher film cost write-downs.

Consumer Products

Consumer Products revenues for the year increased 7 per cent to $3.3 billion and segment operating income increased 15 per cent to $937 million. For the quarter, revenues increased 8 per cent to $883 million and segment operating income increased 29 per cent to $267 million.

Higher segment operating income for both the year and quarter was primarily due to increases at Merchandise Licensing and our retail business as well as favorable foreign currency impacts.

Interactive

Interactive revenues for the year decreased 14 per cent to $845 million and segment operating results improved $92 million to a loss of $216 million. For the quarter, revenues decreased 14 per cent to $191 million and segment operating results improved $18 million to a loss of $76 million.

MUMBAI: English movie channel Star Movies has been able to ink an output deal with Universal Studios. This would be a blow to HBO as it had the rights to air the movies from Universal Studios in India.

The new deal between Star Movies and Universal Studios will come into effect from 1 January 2013.

Star Movies has also renewed its first output deals with Walt Disney Studios and 20th Century Fox.

All these deals will give the broadcaster access to films like ?The Avengers?, ?The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1?, ?Snow White And The Huntsman?, ?John Carter?, and ?Battle Ship?

These first output deals with the major studios will help Star Movies strengthen its position in India. "These studios are understanding the importance of the Indian market and also identifying its credentials as the driver of the category in terms of reach, market share as well as thought leadership," Star said.

For HBO, which had slipped ground due to new competition, the new realignment has not been good news. Last year, Pix had snatched from HBO the rights to air movies from the Sony library. HBO, however, still has output deals with Warner and Paramount.

MUMBAI: CBS Broadcasting, the most watched television network in US, has finalised its upfront deals for 2012-13 attracting $2.7 billion in ad sales.

The broadcasting network sold its primetime ad inventory at a 9 per cent premium versus last year?s rates, thereby missing analyst projection of 10 per cent growth.

Closely following CBS at the second spot is News?owned Fox Network with 8 to 9 per cent growth over the year ago period.

Walt Disney-owned ABC Network has secured 6 to 8 per cent higher ad rates while NBC witnessed the slowest growth among the four networks with a 5.5 to 6.5 per cent increase in ad rates.

ABC is reported to have sold about $2.5 billion in upfront ad sales which is the same as previous year.

The CW Networks and Viacom cable networks have already finished their upfront sales while Turner Broadcasting is said to be 70 per cent sold.

The upfront sales process for the period began in May with all television networks showcasing their content line-up to advertisers.

Sectors like retail, financial services, technology, telecom and quick-service restaurants are believed to have saved the day for US broadcasters with an economy which is looking less than buoyant.

MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports, the JV between Walt Disney‘s ESPN and News Corp‘s Star Sports, has snapped up La Liga exclusive broadcast rights for the Singapore market for 2012/13 and 2014/15 seasons.

ESS will provide coverage across all platforms through its broadcast channels and popular online offering ESPN Player, and the well-established mobile brand Mobile ESPN. The deal also includes the option to showcase select games from La Liga in 3-D.

Fans in Singapore can look forward to catching some of the best players in the world with improved kick-off time to suit local audiences when ESS begins its coverage of La Liga, showcasing up to 250 live games across its channels, with matches being scheduled earlier during prime time hours between 6 pm and 12 midnight.

The Spanish La Liga deal bolsters ESPN Ssta Sports? current stellar list of premier sports events which includes the Formula 1, Wimbledon, Australian Open, Golf Majors such as The US Open, The Masters and The Open, Moto GP, and major tournaments from the Asian Football Confederation and the most iconic event of the year London 2012 Olympic Games.

ESS MD Manu Sawhney said, ?The acquisition of Spanish La Liga underlines our commitment to football fans in Singapore as we continue providing the most compelling content to our viewers. La Liga provides the most entertaining and exciting football action and with the planned broadcast schedules for the new season, fans in Singapore will be able to watch the action in prime time. We have established a strong tradition in building top-class football properties on our networks with the reach of our networks, multiple media platforms, our continued focus towards original, localized football programming and innovative marketing campaigns and we are committed to work towards further strengthening the profile of the league in the market.?

Earlier, ESS had secured live and exclusive rights to broadcast the Spanish La Liga on multiple distribution platforms in 18 countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, the Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and North Korea; as well as China & South Korea in English only.