Discovery Q2 Earnings Miss Projections, but Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Is Profitable

Higher operating costs took a chunk out of profits

Discovery Communications missed Wall Street's expectations on Tuesday, posting second quarter revenue of $1.47 billion and earnings of 82 cents a share.

Analysts had projected revenues of $1.48 billion and earnings of 90 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Shares of the company fell 1.73 percent to $82.95 in pre-market trading on news of the disappointing earnings.

Discover, which numbers OWN, Animal Planet and TLC among its suite of cable properties,  reported net income of $300 million, a 2.4 percent increase from the same quarter last year.

Revenues at the company also increased 30 percent from the year-ago period.

However, the cable giant said that rising operating expenses had taken a chunk out of its profits. Operating costs in Discovery's U.S. division were up 17 percent during the three month period ending in June.

One bright spot was that Oprah Winfrey's troubled OWN network will be in the black for the first half of the year, which is six months ahead of when it was projected to be profitable, Discovery CEO David Zaslav told analysts.

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