Los Angeles, Aug 02: Walt Disney posted a 10% rise in quarterly profit on Thursday as soaring movie and television networks earnings more than offset ongoing weakness in the travel market. Burbank, California-based Disney beat Wall Street expectations and indicated that the same factors were driving the current quarter and would power faster gains next fiscal year, even without a quick rebound at its Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks.

Disney reported a profit of $400m, or 19 cents per share, in its fiscal third-quarter ended June 30, compared with $364m or 18 cents per share a year earlier. Analysts had expected a profit of 16 cents per share.
Revenue rose to $6.2bn from $5.8bn. The weak economy and slow travel were a double whammy for Disney, which also has had to invest heavily to try to turn around ABC, taking it into an earnings trough from which it may now be emerging, analysts and Disney say.

We’re kind of on a roll with the Disney brand,” chief executive and chairman Michael Eisner told analysts on a conference call, referring to the string of movie successes such as ‘Finding Nemo’, a joint venture with Pixar Animation Studios Inc. Bureau Report