Tv Subscription | featured news

Rising TV subscription fees plumped up profits at Time Warner. The media and entertainment giant said profits in the last three months of 2012 rose 51% from a year ago to $1.2bn (£750m), despite no change in revenues. TV subscription income rose 7%, as cable and satellite operators paid more to carry channels such as CNN and TNT.

Microsoft Corp has put its talks with media companies about an online subscription service for TV shows and movies on hold, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The weak economy is hitting Americans where they spend a lot of their free time: at the TV set. They're canceling or forgoing cable and satellite TV subscriptions in record numbers, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of the companies' quarterly earnings reports.

Qualcomm is offering to refund customers who bought its portable TV sets, ahead of shutting down the broadcasts on March 27. Qualcomm's FLO TV service is the only subscription-based broadcast TV service in the U.S. designed for portable gadgets. It's been live since 2007, but has never garnered much interest from customers.