Time Warner's Bewkes Points To MLB Coverage As Turner Sees Spike In Q3 Profits

Time Warner reported a Q3 net profit of $838M, compared with $822M "in the same period last year," according to Kristi Swartz of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. The company "reported a 12 percent increase in operating income to $1.2 billion for its networks." Time Warner Chair & CEO Jeff Bewkes "attributed TBS and TNT’s success to a slate of original programming," as well as MLB. Bewkes said, "Baseball is a marquis property with a long history on TBS." When asked whether Turner would expand its sports programming deals to include other major franchises such as the NFL, Bewkes said, "Sports can be a very important part of the offering at Turner, we just need to have the right one. If an NFL package came up … just like the NCAA, we would consider something of that size if we were confident that we could monetize that. I’m just not clear what the choices are" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 11/8).