Resort tax collections in Orlando declined 3.8% Y/Y in September (see Orange County, FL press release, click here), which was only slightly worse than the 2.4% decline in August and the 2.9% decline in both June and July. What makes this datapoint interesting is that Orlando hotel occupancy fell 5.2 pts or 10% in September (Click…
Last week, Fred Reynolds, CBS’ CFO, made the following comment in response to a question about whether structural changes in Detroit would impair auto ad spending going forward: “You have got to remember the world is now foreign manufacturers too, like Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mercedes. They are actually picking up spending because they are gaining…
On May 21, 2008, Time Warner (TWX) and Time Warner Cable (TWC) announced their separation plans. While we were surprised by the level of debt TWC was set to take on as a result of the separation ($10.27/share dividend concurrent with spin), we believe TWX management’s goal was to reduce its own leverage as far…
As the music industry entered 2007, CD sales fell off a cliff and we expected the pace of decline to accelerate into 2008. However, in the first half of 2008, the rate of decline slowed considerably. We sense Wal-Mart and other big box retailers were pushing for substantial wholesale price reductions (see Billboard article from…
We picked up this report this morning from another blog that Mexican President Felipe Calderon has told Cofetel to auction off spectrum in Mexico before year-end despite claims by Cofetel to delay those spectrum auctions into 2009. We have not yet been able to verify the validity of this report but we have had no…
Sprint revealed last night that it would not sell its iDEN network. While this is likely the result of potential iDEN buyers inability to raise sufficient capital in the near term, which should not be a surprise, it is more interesting that Sprint is electing to aggressively load this network rather than execute a plan…
Disney is set to report fiscal (Sept) Q4 earnings on November 6th. We believe the risk to FYQ4 estimates is limited, with investors far more focused on fiscal 2009 results. Despite the strength of Disney’s content creation over the past several years, the company faces significant economic headwinds, with its margins having essentially doubled since…
Sumner Redstone led off the CBS conference call this morning with a brief discussion of the financial difficulties facing National Amusements (NAI), the privately-held company he controls, which owns his controlling stakes in both CBS and Viacom. Mr. Redstone refused to answer questions on NAI, indicating he could say nothing beyond his opening remarks. While…
Is there life for TV stations beyond television? While the local television business is currently under incredible stress due to a falloff in local ad sales, the larger issue is that we believe the medium is in secular decline. While there is sure to be some level of “bounce” when the economy recovers, we struggle…
While Viacom management has talked positively about Rockband (the key game that has come out of its purchase of Harmonix) for the past year, financial benefits have been hard to identify. If anything, the launch of Rockband (version 1) made it harder to understand the underlying performance of Viacom’s cable network as Rockband generated substantial…
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