Discovery's Q2 Profit Drops Despite Sales Growth

Discovery Communications’ second quarter profit fell 25 percent from 2014, despite the network of networks seeing a slight sales uptick overall.

The TV media company couldn’t hit the marks that Wall Street set for it this time around.

Analysts foresaw Discovery (DISCA) reporting earnings per share (EPS) of $0.48 on $1.67 billion in revenue. The David Zaslav-led company instead revealed EPS of $0.44 per share on $1.654 billion in revenue.

Also Read: Comcast, Discovery Renew Long-Term Carriage Agreement

Meanwhile, net income fell year over year from $379 million to $286 million. Discovery shared the somewhat disappointing news on Wednesday morning before the U.S. stock markets rang their opening bells.

Domestically, Discovery’s U.S. networks’ revenue increased 5 percent from last year’s comparable three-month period to $814 million, driven by 12 percent distribution growth, per the company’s financial filing.

Higher rates and the consolidation of Discovery Family helped that sales metric. Advertising revenues were essentially flat during the 90-day period, as higher pricing was offset by lower ratings.

Also Read: '19 Kids & Counting' Cancellation Costs Discovery $19 Million

Still, as one might expect, President and CEO Zaslav (pictured above) was still publicly “pleased.”

“Driven by our unmatched portfolio and steady growth around the world, Discovery’s strong start to the year continued in the second quarter,” he said. “We have carried that momentum into the third quarter and signed three landmark deals — the historic agreement for the Olympic Games in Europe, our agreement to acquire full ownership of Eurosport and our comprehensive long-term renewal with Comcast — that will bolster Discovery’s position and market share for years to come.”

“I am pleased with the progress we made in the first half of the year and look forward to building our stable of content, IP and world-class platforms to drive viewer engagement and meaningful value to distributors, advertisers and shareholders now and into the future,” said Zazlav, who earned a remarkable $156.08 million in 2014, according to TheWrap’s executive compensation study.

Also Read: Investigation Discovery SVP: 'We're Not About Violence and We're Not About Gore'

Also of note during the quarter, Discovery repurchased 3.9 million shares of its Series C common stock at an average price of $31.36 per share, for a total of $123 million. Additionally, on May 7, Discovery repurchased 1.4 million shares from the Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership at $61.63 per share, adding up to another $84 million.

Discovery Communications is home to cable channels such as Discovery, TLC and OWN.

The company will hold a conference call for investors and media analysts at 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

The Scene at TCA: Funny, Frank and Flippant Quotes From Summer 2015 TV Press Tour (Photos)

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“In the tradition of working with Carlton Cuse, I don’t know anything that’s going on.” -- "Colony" star Josh Holloway
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“It’s hard to talk about that without sounding sexist ourselves.” -- "Reign" showrunner Laurie McCarthy on balancing work and home lives during female showrunners panel
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“This is amazing! I have a TV show!” -- "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" star Rachel Bloom on breakout role
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“At that time we weren’t looking to do another DC project.” -- CW president Mark Pedowitz on passing on "Supergirl"
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“Stay open minded, dude.” -- "Billions" star Damian Lewis' advice to viewers
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“And so, now I feel actually more freed up,” -- Stephen Colbert on dropping his "Colbert Report" character for "The Late Show"
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“His enthusiasm was contagious.” -- "Limitless" star Jake McDorman on Bradley Cooper
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“A bizzaro world honor.” -- "Angel From Hell's" Kevin Pollak on being killed off of "Mom"
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“He’s gonna be more in the background.” -- DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff John on a potential Superman appearance on "Supergirl"
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“Boo” -- CBS entertainment chairman Nina Tassler on the network's Emmys performance
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“I don’t think about it ... It’s just not relevant to anything I’m doing.” -- Former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star Luke Perry on Lifetime's unauthorized tell-all movie
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“A cross between Machete and Marcia Brady.” -- Danny Trejo describing his "From Dusk Till Dawn" character
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“We’re not about violence and we’re not about gore. And if any torture is involved, we don’t show that. What we do show, is the consequence of the crime.” -- Sara Kozak, Senior Vice President, Production of Investigation Discovery
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“Let me put it this way. If a person has 9,000 tweets and five of them are not to your taste. What I heard is, ‘This person has 8,995 tweets that weren’t offensive.'” -- New 'Daily Show' Host Trevor Noah on his Twitter controversy
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"“MTV brought us up and said ‘Hey, it’s lunchtime.’ We had no idea what to do! They gave us a lunch break and everyone was freaking out, like ‘We can’t sit down. We can’t take lunch.'" -- YouTube star Todrick Hall on his new MTV show "Todrick"
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“My own community ostracizes me and thinks of Nelly Fags and Butch Lesbians are sort of the pariahs of the community.” -- Lea DeLaria comparing her life story to that of her "Orange Is the New Black" character
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"With this [show], there’s no time for dicking around." -- "Master of None" showrunner and star Aziz Ansari on his new gig.
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“I don’t think anyone else needs to hear me bitch about E!” -- Chelsea Handler, host of an upcoming four-film Netflix documentary series
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“Playing a trans character on a show being shepherded by Lana Wachowski, I knew I would be protected and represented in a way that trans people have never been represented before on TV,” -- "Sense8" star Jamie Clayton
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"We don’t need dragons, we’ve got cocaine!" -- "Narcos" star Pedro Pascal on similarities between new show and "Game of Thrones"
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“Comedy is born out of the most unfortunate of circumstances." -- "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" star Tituss Burgess
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“I don’t have to defend Adam Sandler." -- Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos on network's four-picture deal with "Pixels" star
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