Most Disney divisions “appear to be heading in...

year ago. Broadcasting “remains an area of concern but only represents” 7 percent of total company segment profits, he said. Despite improved results at Disney Interactive, that division likely won’t be able to achieve profitability or even “break-even” status this year due to the delay of the Disney Infinity game initiative, CEO Robert Iger said on an earnings call after regular U.S. trading Tuesday. Q2 Disney profit grew to $1.5 billion from $1.1 billion. Total revenue grew to $10.6 billion from $9.6 billion. Disney expects an operating loss in Disney Interactive for Q3 that’s “comparable to” the Q2 loss, said Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo, “due primarily to the shifting” of the release date of Infinity from Q3 to Q4. Like Activision’s popular Skylanders franchise, Infinity combines videogames with collectible toy characters that are used in conjunction with the title. In the case of Infinity, the toys are based on Disney characters that get placed on a base unit to be used with the game that is being released for multiple platforms. The market for the rental and sale of DVD and Blu-ray titles remains a “challenged business,” Iger also said. But the home entertainment business has been “growing nicely on the digital front and I think that bodes well for the future,” he said. Q2 home entertainment revenue was “essentially flat,” as a 4 percent decrease due to lower unit sales was “offset” by a 3 percent increase from higher pricing, Disney said in the 10-Q filing. The increase in pricing reflected a higher sales mix of new releases, which have higher prices than catalog titles, in Q2 this time, it said. “Significant” Q2 home entertainment titles included Wreck-It Ralph, Lincoln and the Peter Pan “Diamond Release,” it said. Q2 Studio Entertainment revenue grew to $1.3 billion from $1.2 billion and swung to a $118 million operating profit from an $84 million operating loss, due in part to the theatrical movies Oz The Great and Powerful and Wreck-It Ralph performing much better than John Carter a year ago, said Disney. Media Networks revenue grew to $5 billion from $4.7 billion, with operating profit growing to $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion. Within that division, broadcast revenue was about flat at $1.5 billion and operating profit tumbled to $138 million from $229 million, but cable networks revenue grew to $3.5 billion from $3.2 billion and operating profit increased to $1.7 billion from $1.5 billion.