Walt Disney beats by $0.15, beats on revs (81.03)
Reports Q2 (Mar) earnings of $1.11 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.15 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.96; revenues rose 10.4% year/year to $11.65 bln vs the $11.24 bln consensus. Cable: Operating income at Cable Networks increased $250 mln to $2.0 bln for the quarter due to growth at ESPN and the domestic Disney Channels and higher equity income from A&E Television Networks. Higher operating income at ESPN was due to increased affiliate revenues and decreased programming and production costs, partially offset by lower advertising revenue. The increase in affiliate revenues was due to contractual rate increases and a reduction in revenue deferrals as a result of changes in contractual provisions related to annual programming commitments, partially offset by a decrease as a result of the sale of ESPN UK in the fourth quarter of the prior year. Parks: Parks and Resorts revenues for the quarter increased 8% to $3.6