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    Disney 4Q results allay concerns about cord-cutting

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments981 Views
    In this Jan. 9, 2015 file photo, Bob Iger arrives at the AFI Awards at The Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

    By Ryan Nakashima, Business Writer

    LOS ANGELES (AP) --

    Disney is allaying concerns about cord-cutting after reporting better-than-expected revenue in the cable-network division that houses ESPN.

    CEO Bob Iger told CNBC that he remains "bullish" about the TV business. Three months earlier, Disney set off a wave of selling in media stocks after trimming its future guidance due to a modest decrease in ESPN subscribers. Last month, Disney cut about 300 jobs at ESPN and shuttered its popular Grantland website.

    "The fact remains that the industry did lose some (subscribers) last year," he told CNBC. "Now is that a reason to panic? Absolutely not. People still love television, the still love ESPN and they love live sports."

    Thursday's comments come the same day Disney announced it is licensing ESPN and other channels to Sony's PlayStation Vue online TV service, a bundle of over 50 channels that is still smaller than most traditional pay TV packages and costs $50 a month.

    Iger told analysts on a conference call that Disney would continue to license its top networks to new entrants with slimmer bundles of channels that are more attractively priced to young people. He also said ESPN remains a key driver of the popularity of new offerings, including Vue.

    "They came to us to negotiate a deal because it was clear the product that they had launched was not penetrating the market as much as I think they were expecting," he said.

    Disney said Thursday that revenue at its leading business, cable networks, rose 12 percent to $4.25 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter, beating the $4.22 billion expected by analysts polled by FactSet. An increase in subscribers at its newly launched SEC Network partially offset a decline "at certain of our networks," the company said, without specifying.

    Overall, revenue rose 9 percent to $13.51 billion, shy of the $13.55 billion expected. But adjusted earnings grew to $1.20 per share from 89 cents a year ago, beating the $1.15 expected.

    Shares of Walt Disney Co., which is based in Burbank, California, were down 10 cents at $112.90 in after-hours trading. That's still about 7 percent below the close immediately before last quarter's earnings call set off a pullback in media sector stocks.

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    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

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