Summer 2008 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: PLATFORM-A EXTENDS STREAK AS #1 ONLINE DOMESTIC ADVERTISING NETWORK P. 2 After making motion picture history with its opening-weekend (July 18-20) gross of approximately $158 million at the domestic box The Dark Knight –––––– offi ce, Warner Bros.’ has gone on to break the domestic box-offi ce record for the fastest fi lm to reach the $400 million mark. Through August 4, The Dark Knight generated approximately $610 million in gross receipts at the worldwide box offi ce. HBO AND APPLE BRING (Source: Box Offi ce Mojo and internal data) HBO PROGRAMMING TO iTUNES STORE P. 3 TIME WARNER REPORTS TIME WARNER –––––– SECOND-QUARTER 2008 RESULTS TIME INC. RE-LAUNCHES n August 6, 2008, Time Warner TIME WARNER AND TIME WARNER CABLE HEALTH BRAND Inc. reported fi nancial results for AGREE TO SEPARATION P. 3 its second quarter ended June O ime Warner Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. announced –––––– 30, 2008. Commenting on the results, Time Warner’s President and CEO Jeff in May that they have entered into an agreement that TIME WARNER CABLE Bewkes said: “I’m pleased by the overall Twill result in the complete legal and structural separa- AGREES TO INVEST IN performance of our businesses so far tion of the two companies. Time Warner President and CEO WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS this year, particularly in light of the Jeff Bewkes said: “This is the right step for Time Warner JOINT VENTURE and Time Warner Cable stockholders. After the transac- JEFF BEWKES, challenging economic environment, and P. 4 PRESIDENT that we’re on track to achieve our business tion, each company will have greater strategic, fi nancial AND CEO, –––––– TIME WARNER INC. outlook. This resilience refl ects the and operational fl exibility and will be better positioned to TURNER AND YAHOO! strength of our brands, our expertise compete. Separating the two companies also will help their ENTER STRATEGIC and our scale, which we think give us a sustained management teams focus on realizing the full potential of CONTENT AND advantage in creating, packaging and distributing the the respective businesses and will provide investors with ADVERTISING AGREEMENT industry’s most compelling content – such as The Dark greater choice in how they own this portfolio of assets. We’re P. 5 Knight, Sex and the City and The Closer. We’ve also bullish on Time Warner Cable’s prospects, but its strategic made signifi cant progress in our top structural initiatives. –––––– goals and capital needs are increasingly different from those During the quarter, we agreed to the terms of our of our other businesses.” As part of the agreement, Time WARNER BROS. TV planned separation from Time Warner Cable. In addi- Warner Cable will declare a one-time dividend to all of its SIGNS DISTRIBUTION tion, we’ve made the key decisions that will enable us to stockholders of $10.27 per Time Warner Cable common AGREEMENTS TO LAUNCH run AOL’s access and audience businesses separately share – a total of approximately $10.9 billion – payable NEW BRANDED CHANNELS beginning in 2009. As we continue to reshape Time P. 6 Warner, we’ll increasingly focus on our goal to create immediately prior to completion of the separation. Time and manage high-quality branded content, across Warner Inc. will receive $9.25 billion from this dividend. The multiple platforms around the world, at the highest separation, expected to be consummated around the end returns possible for our stockholders.” of 2008, is contingent on, among other things, receipt of a More information about Time Warner, including its fi nancial results and business favorable IRS ruling on tax treatment as well as customary outlook, can be found on the company’s Web site, www.timewarner.com. regulatory reviews and local franchise approvals. Summer 2008 TIME WARNER A new era of Star Wars entertain- TIME WARNER RECEIVES 132 PRIMETIME EMMY ment begins in 2008 when Star NOMINATIONS Wars: The Clone n July 17, Time Warner companies received 132 nomi- Wars, from creator George Lucas, pre- nations for the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, mieres as a feature O to be announced September 21. HBO received 85 fi lm on August 15, nominations, the most of any network for the eighth year in followed by the a row, with its 23 nominations for John Adams leading all television series debut on Cartoon other nominees. Warner Bros. garnered 34 nominations, Network in the fall, including 12 for Pushing Daisies. Turner Broadcasting’s TNT in a partnership collected 10 nominations, while Cartoon Network received between Lucas- three nominations. fi lm Ltd., Warner Bros. Pictures and –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Turner Broadcasting ESSENCE FORMS PARTNERSHIP WITH WARNER System. BROS. TV GROUP; ESSENCE MUSIC FESTIVAL BREAKS ATTENDANCE RECORD arner Bros. Television Group (WBTVG) and Time Inc.’s Essence Communications Inc. announced in –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– WApril that they are teaming up on a series of initia- WARNER BROS. AND HBO SIGN LANDMARK tives that will expand the Essence brand across a number DEAL WITH FRANCE TELECOM of platforms, including the Internet and television. One of the fi rst projects to come from the new relationship is the arner Bros. International Television Distribution and late summer re-launch of an expansive new Web destina- HBO announced in April a landmark multi-year deal tion at Essence.com, created in collaboration with WBTVG’s Wto be the initial suppliers of programming to France Telepictures Productions, which aims to be the ultimate Telecom Orange’s new multi-platform pay television service, online destination for African-American women. The multi- which is expected to be available to consumers in the fourth platform agreement also includes plans to expand the Es- quarter of 2008. Under the terms of the deal, a wide variety sence brand into television. Telepictures Productions and of programming from both companies will be made available Essence will work in partnership to develop content based across a number of platforms. on the Essence brand and establish working relationships across the various Telepictures properties, which will serve as incubators for potential television series or original AOL digital programming for broadband. Separately, Essence PLATFORM-A EXTENDS STREAK AS #1 ONLINE reported record-breaking attendance of 270,000 for its 14th annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans in DOMESTIC ADVERTISING NETWORK July. The Festival, sponsored by, among others, Coca-Cola, OL’s Platform-A announced in Chevrolet, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, featured headline July that its advertising network, performances by Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, AAdvertising.com, was ranked as Chris Rock, Rihanna, Jill Scott, LL Cool J, Patti LaBelle and the #1 third-party domestic display ad others. Beyoncé was announced as a headline act for the network for the 50th straight month, Festival in 2009. based on audience reach, according to comScore Media Metrix. That caps months of progress at Platform-A, which expanded in Europe in June, launched several new advertiser and publisher products, and entered into signifi cant new partnerships. The expan- sion in Europe offers advertisers and publishers a full suite of industry-leading marketing solutions powered by the Web’s most advanced advertising technologies. Platform-A’s new product launches include its spot marketplace service, which lets advertisers bid on unsold ad inventory across the Platform-A network, and PubAccess, a self-service tool that makes it easy for small publishers to join the Advertising.com network. Platform-A announced in June that it would offer guaranteed CPM rates to Bebo and Facebook application developers for U.S. traffi c to their applications. The new partnerships announced since May include an agreement for ADTECH to be the online ad- serving provider for Gannett Co. Inc. and signed deals with Virgin Mobile and Verizon for mobile advertising. 2 Summer 2008 AOL Conchords are $1.99 per episode, and The Sopranos, Deadwood and Rome are priced at $2.99 per episode. AOL PROGRAMMING SCORES WITH CONSUMERS –––------––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– OL continued to HBO VIDEO TEAMS UP WITH CREATESPACE grow audience reach BO Video and CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com, Inc. and engagement A group of companies, announced in June an agreement for its programming and to provide consumers with a selection of HBO and Cin- launched several niche H emax award-winning and critically acclaimed documentaries sites during the quarter. AOL’s content channels through the CreateSpace DVD on Demand service, which saw unique visitors climb allows for the manufacture and shipping of packaged DVDs 10% and page views rise as soon as customers place their orders. These documen- 58% year over year in taries will be available on Amazon.com and HBO.com. HBO the second quarter, according to comScore Media Metrix. and Cinemax “DVD on Demand” documentary titles will be Relaunched verticals – including News, Money & Finance encrypted with the Content Scramble System copy protec- and Living – helped drive this growth, along with several new tion. These DVDs will be the fi rst major content label titles sites designed to appeal to consumers’ passion points. AOL to be manufactured on demand with this protection. launched six new sites since April – ParentDish, Pixcetera, –––------–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––