HBO Now, the standalone online version of the premium TV channel, has gained about 800,000 paying subscribers since it launched in April, contributing significantly to the 2.7 million net new HBO customers last year.
The figure was revealed by HBO CEO Richard Plepler in a conference call following the release of parent Time Warner Inc.'s quarterly earnings results.
The gains didn't seem to wow investors, as Time Warner shares fell 3.5 percent to $61.02 in afternoon trading Wednesday.
Stifel analyst Benjamin Mogil said the 3.2 percent gain in HBO subscriber revenue was lower than the 4.7 percent rise that Wall Street expected.
Initially available for $15 a month only on Apple TV and other Apple devices, HBO Now has steadily rolled out to other platforms including Amazon, Roku, Google's Chromecast and certain smart TVs.
Plepler said the service has yet to be offered on two major game platforms – PlayStation and Xbox, which accounts for 20 percent of viewing of the HBO Go app that is available to traditional HBO subscribers. Nor has it debuted new content it is investing in, including shows by Jon Stewart and Bill Simmons and a news show by the upstart network Vice.
"That of course will catalyze a great deal of marketing, digitally and otherwise, which we think will drive subscriptions," Plepler said. "So, we are very excited about where we are."
For Time Warner as a whole, revenue in the quarter through December fell 6 percent to $7.08 billion, below the $7.55 billion expected by analysts polled by Zacks. Earnings of $1.06 per share beat the $1.01 that analysts expected.
Sony reports healthy profits on strong sales of sensors and games
Sony's profit rose 69% in July-September from a year earlier on the back of strong sales of its image sensors, games, music and network services, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said on Friday.
Quarterly profit was 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up from 200 billion yen in the year-earlier period, while consolidated quarterly sales edged up 3% year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion).
Tokyo-based Sony's latest quarterly results were boosted by healthy demand around the world for image sensors used in mobile products.
Sales also held up in its video games division. During the latest quarter, 3.8 million PlayStation 5 game consoles were sold globally, compared with 4.9 million units sold the same period a year ago.
Demand remained strong for PS5 game software, according to Sony.
The top-selling music releases from Sony for the quarter included "SOS" by SZA, David Gilmour's "Luck and Strange" and Kenshi Yonezu's "Lost Corner."
One area where Sony's business suffered was its pictures division, including TV shows and movies, which was impacted by production delays caused by the strikes in Hollywood.
Among the recent hit films from Sony was "It Ends With Us," a romantic drama based on a novel.
Sony, which also makes digital cameras and TVs, maintained its 980-billion yen ($6.4 billion) profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2025, up 1% from the previous fiscal year.
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