English Entertainment
Warner Music Group’s losses lessen
NEW YORK: Warner Music Group has announced financial results for the 10 month period ended 30 September 2004.
Revenue for the period was $2.5 billion, up two per cent from the 10 months ended 30 September 2003. Operating income increased to $7 million from a loss of $197 million in the prior year period. Net loss improved to $136 million in 2004 from a net loss of $239 million in 2003.
The company reported results for a 10 month transition period due to the change in 2004 of its fiscal year end from 30 November to 30 September. Meanwhile the company also announced that it is selling its sheet music and educational materials division to closely held Alfred Publishing so it can focus more on signing artists and songwriters. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr. said, “Warner Music Group has continued to make significant progress on a number of fronts since our last earnings announcement. The financial results reflect the continued successful implementation of the restructuring plan and the total commitment of our colleagues in positioning Warner Music Group for success in a changing market. Now that the lion’s share of the restructuring has been completed, we can turn our entire focus to building and developing the company’s roster of recording artists and songwriters.”
Worldwide recorded music revenue increased one percent versus the same 10 month period in the prior year to $2.06 billion. However when one takes favourable foreign exchange out of the equation, worldwide recorded music revenue decreased by approximately four per cent.
The results were driven primarily by lower sales volume attributable to the timing and number of new releases as compared with the prior year. Excluding favorable foreign exchange, international recorded music revenue declined five per cent. US recorded music revenue declined by approximately three per cent to $977 million. The company’s major sellers this year included albums by Josh Groban, Green Day, Big & Rich, Twista, Jet and Michael Bublé.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
