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Discovery Reports Higher First-Quarter Earnings (B&C)
Discovery Communications reported higher first-quarter earnings as international growth offset a decline in digital distribution revenue. First-quarter net income rose 4 percent to $231 million, or 63 cents a share, from $221 million, or 57 cents a share. The Wrap / The Box Discovery also said it expects Oprah Winfrey’s OWN to meet its previously stated goal of breaking even in cash flow in the second half of this year, Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav said. OWN viewership was up 3 percent in its key women 25-54 demographic in the first quarter, even though the first quarter of 2012 included OWN’s highest-rated broadcast, Winfrey’s interview with Whitney Houston’s daughter. THR The latest figure was impacted by a range of factors in addition to what the company called “the strong underlying operating performance in the current year’s quarter.” Among the items affecting the latest profit were a $92 million gain from the consolidation of results for Discovery Japan and $46 million of improved equity earnings, but also higher equity-based compensation expenses and a $59 million loss from “hedging activities primarily associated with the acquisition of the SBS Nordic operations.”

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HowStuffWorks.com was acquired by Discovery for $250 million, and is supposed to be “quickly incorporated into programming”. Owners of the site include investor Carl Icahn, and was founded in 1998 by the aptly named Marshall Brain.

Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment is pitching Hitch as a sitcom, but without Smith on camera, only as EP.

HEROES will soon become a graphic novel, written by creator Tim Kring along with Michael Turner and Phil Jimenez. The book is expected out in the UK on November 23rd.

TV Guide launches Hollywood 411, a one-hour daily entertainment news magazine show, in January, and it’s not supposed to be related to the trade directory of the same name. The show will be hosted by Madison Michele and cover entertainment and celebrity news from TV, film and music. Jerry Burke is the EP.

Benjamin Bratt joins ABC’s The Cleaner, to star as a guy who after hitting rock bottom from his addictions, makes a deal with God to help himself and others.

Discovery laid off some 200 employees, mainly from the Silver Spring HQ. Hardest hit was the US Networks group, including the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, and other positions in the production, corporate communications and technological services divisions.

Discovery Channel’s new season includes:

Last Man Standing
Six young Western athletes travel the world to compete against remote tribesmen on their own turf. Headhunters disqualified.

Josh Bernstein’s Adventure
Remeber when Jewish guys were bookish?

Chasing Dummies
Nothing to do with The Girls Next Door. Anthropologists discover ancient cultures through mummification rituals.

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