Turner Broadcasting is a diversified entertainment company with five business segments: entertainment; news; syndication and leasing; sports; and real estate. These business segments contributed to the company's 1992 operating profit in the following percentages: entertainment, 54%; news, 47%; syndication/licensing, -4%; sports, 3%; real estate, less than 1%. The company is publicly held and traded on the American Stock Exchange.
Entertainment operations include Turner's cable television networks WTBS, TNT and the Cartoon Network. WTBS and TNT are available to most cable subscribers while the Cartoon Network has limited availability. The news operations includes Cable News Network (CNN), the Headline News Network (HNN) which also have wide cable distribution. The syndication and licensing operations are based primarily on the company's library of 3,700 films, most of which were acquired when Turner purchased MGM/UA Entertainment in 1987. The sports operation includes the Atlanta Braves major league baseball team and a 96 percent limited partnership with the Atlanta Hawks professional basketball team. The real estate operations consist largely of the hotel, office and sports complex in downtown Atlanta.
Turner recently moved to acquire New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment; the two mergers are estimated to cost the company approximately $600 million payable largely in stock. Castle Rock produces mainstream films while New Line produces low-budget films but has a strong distribution network.
The entertainment segment saw revenue increase by 11 percent during 1992, with an increase in operating income in this segment of 189 percent for the same year. Excluding data related to the 1992 Winter Olympics, operating income still increased 46 percent in this segment. Advertising revenue for the WTBS operation increased 4 percent in 1992 due to the station's ability to increase its prices. Ratings declined slight...