Disney promotes Nancy Kanter to executive vice president-original programming, and general manager, Disney Junior Worldwide … Windstream Senior Vice President-Financial Planning Bob Gunderman now also is treasurer … Websense cybersecurity firm hires Shawn Pearson, ex-EMC’s RSA, as vice president-worldwide channel sales … Lobbyist registration: Radio Music License Committee, Alcalde & Fay, effective Aug 2.
Broadcast Q2 results: Sinclair broadcast revenue from continuing operations rose 28 percent to $279.3 million from the year-ago quarter, as operating income rose 17 percent to $84.3 million. This quarter’s broadcast sales from continuing operations are expected to rise 20 to 22 percent from Q3 2012, it said in Wednesday’s earnings release (http://bit.ly/13k3nRI). Since April, the company has agreed to buy 35 stations, for a total of 91 being acquired in the past two years, Sinclair said. “The effect is to not only grow our national footprint and reach, but to unlock operating synergies, gain access to valuable spectrum, and build a platform whereby we can expand content offerings and shape the future of the broadcast industry.” Executives said on a conference call Wednesday that they don’t expect any FCC rulemaking on the UHF ownership discount (CD Aug 7 p18) to affect deals “in the pipeline” or that have been reached, wrote Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker to investors. “It sounds like the broadcasters are ready to defend their right to consolidate (either by keeping the UHF discount or removing the 39 percent cap, in our take) given the amount the landscape has changed.” ... Nexstar Q2 sales rose 42 percent to $126.2 million from the year-ago Q2. Net income fell 28 percent to $6.37 million. The company bought 18 TV stations in Q4 2012 and Q1 2013, said Chairman Perry Sook in Nexstar’s earnings report (http://bit.ly/19aSTfs). “Despite not participating in larger recent” mergers and acquisitions, Credit Suisse’s Michael Senno expects Nexstar “to highlight its intent to continue to pursue smaller, less expensive, accretive acquisitions,” the analyst wrote investors. He said there’s an opportunity “to create significant value by consolidating smaller” broadcasters.
Media Q2 results: Charter Communications sales rose 4.7 percent from the year-ago quarter to $1.97 billion. The number of residential customers rose 2 percent to 5.09 million, though video subscribers fell 4 percent to 3.92 million. Two-thirds of Internet customers “receive” speeds of at least 30 Mbps, said CEO Tom Rutledge in Tuesday’s earnings release (http://bit.ly/1889IDc). The net loss widened to $96 million from $83 million. Triple-play bundled product sales were behind the “strong metrics,” wrote UBS analyst John Hodulik to investors, but he and other analysts said cash flow disappointed. Adjusted EBITDA declined 0.1 percent to $692 million. ... Liberty Media, which said its stake in Charter is worth $3.5 billion, said (http://bit.ly/13ZuhgM) net earnings fell 90 percent in Q2 to $96 million from the year-ago quarter. SiriusXM, in which Liberty has a controlling stake, had a 12 percent Q2 revenue increase to $940 million. Liberty sales rose eightfold to $1.08 billion. ... Entercom sales fell 3 percent from Q2 2012 to $101.2 million, which CEO David Field called “disappointing.” Station operating income fell 4 percent to $35.5 million, said the radio broadcaster (http://bit.ly/155NsG3). “Field made no bones about” the revenue decline on an earnings conference call, wrote Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker to investors. “He spent much” of the call “blaming the poor performance” on “sales execution,” she added.
Raymond Chen, ex-Patent and Trademark Office, sworn in as judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit … Ensequence hires David Kline, adviser to company and ex-Cablevision Media Sales, as chief operating officer … Fortrust, Rocky Mountain regional data center and colocation services provider adds David Shepard, who remains senior vice president at partner company Io, as senior vice president-sales and marketing … Commtouch adds David Earhart, CA Technologies, to board.
Lerman Senter hires Kevin Cookler and David Rines, both ex-Fish & Richardson, as of counsel, representing wireless and wireline communications service providers … Time Warner promotes David Levy to president, Turner Broadcasting System … Neustar hires Sujata Gosalia, ex-
MPAA hires Neil Fried, ex-House Commerce Committee, as senior vice president-government and regulatory affairs, as expected (CD July 3 p9) … Senate confirms Stuart Delery as assistant attorney general for Civil Division, a job he held on an acting basis … National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications names Alicin Williamson, Raben Group, to provide through that firm interim executive leadership until a successor to outgoing President and CEO Nicol Turner-Lee (CD July 17 p19) is named … North Bridge, firm with investments in industries including communications and digital media, promotes Matt Blodgett to partner and Holly Maloney to principal, rehires Kaitie Donovan after receiving MBA as principal, Growth Equity team, and hires as associates Patrick Devine, ex-America’s Growth Capital, and Steve Isom, ex-Jefferies … Michael Buchheim, Rovi senior vice president-professional services, named product development head … Lobbying registrations: Viacom, Capitol Counsel, effective July 1 … Harris Corp., Capitol Hill Consulting Group, effective July 1 … Twenty-First Century Fox, David Leach, effective July 1 … CTIA, Forbes-Tate, effective July 1.
Prometheus Radio Project hires Sanjay Jolly, ex-Mujb'ab'l Yol Association, as policy director, replacing Brandy Doyle, becoming a consultant to the low-power FM group (CD July 22 p9) … Hires in recent months by BCI Broadband include as senior vice presidents: John Gibbs, ex-Cablevision’s Optimum West, for business services; Vin Zachariah, ex-Mediacom, residential services; and Diane Quennoz, ex-Insight Communications, marketing … Hearst Television hires Angela Betasso, formerly with Belo Corp., as vice president-sales, likely effective early next year … Frontier Communications elects Virginia Ruesterholz, ex-Verizon, to board … Lobbying registrations: Synapse Wireless, Mace Enterprises, effective July 1.
President Barack Obama plans to nominate Jo Handelsman, Yale University, to be associate director for science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy … CC Media Holdings hires Richard Bressler, a director of the company, as president and chief financial officer of it and of Clear Channel Communications … Lone Star Corporate Services network operations company hires Sean Flippo, ex-EMC, as chief marketing officer and executive vice president-sales … Viacom promotes Karim Mawji to senior vice president-digital platform, Music & Entertainment Ad Sales group, new position … General Cable names Sallie Bailey, Louisiana-Pacific, to board.
Copyright Office promotes Jacqueline Charlesworth to general counsel and associate register of copyrights … German Foreign Ministry hires Dirk Brengelmann, ex-NATO, as cyberpolicy officer … AVG Technologies, provider of Internet, mobile security and privacy products, hires Gary Kovacs, ex-Mozilla, as CEO and managing director … Entravision hires Angelica Balderas, ex-Adelante Media Group, as senior vice president-integrated marketing solutions for Sacramento, Calif., market.
Media Q2 results: Discovery Communications Q2 revenue grew 30 percent to $1.47 billion from the same period last year, said the company in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1e8R67D). “Our sustained commitment to producing captivating content and the further expansion of global pay-tv markets combined to once again drive audience and revenue growth across our unique distribution platform,” said CEO David Zaslav. Net income rose to $300 million from $293 million. Last quarter’s growth was led by a 61 percent revenue increase from international networks to $652 million, and a 13 percent revenue increase in the cable programmer’s U.S. networks to $793 million. The international increase comes from increased subscribership, particularly in Latin America, it said. Ad revenue was up on the international side, “primarily due to higher pricing and delivery in Latin America and increased viewership and higher pricing in Western Europe,” said the company. U.S. network revenue rose primarily on “advertising and distribution revenue growth,” the release said. Discovery expects 2013 revenue of $5.55 billion to $5.63 billion and net income available to stockholders of $1.1 billion to $1.15 billion. Discovery stock closed down 4 percent to $81 on Tuesday. ... LIN Media revenue rose 36 percent to $164.3 million from Q2 2012, a release said (http://bit.ly/17eR5eD). “Our results were driven by our recent television station acquisitions, higher pay TV subscriber fees and significant growth in our digital business,” said CEO Vincent Sandusky. LIN sales from ads, retransmission consent and TV station websites rose 44 percent to $107.1 million. Political ad revenue dropped by $6.1 million to $1.5 million. Net income fell from $27 million to $7.2 million. “Looking ahead, the absence of political revenues and the slow economic recovery will negatively impact growth for the remainder of 2013,” said Sandusky. ... Belo, being acquired by Gannett (CD July 26 p6), said in a release (http://bit.ly/157H9b0) that the deal led to a $4.1 million increase in corporate operating costs and a $2.7 million increase in share-based compensation expense due to Belo’s rising stock price. Belo also reported a decrease in profit to $21.8 million from $25.8 million in Q2 2012. Revenue fell 2.3 percent to $174 million. Belo blamed the drop on the decrease in political revenue, which totaled $1.2 million, compared to $9.5 million in Q2 2012. But Belo said Internet ads were up by about 21 percent and retrans consent revenue grew 10 percent.