Profit Rises 16% at CBS on Higher Licensing Fees

The CBS Corporation said on Wednesday that its revenue and earnings increased in the third quarter, reflecting sturdy growth in licensing fees for television shows and subscription fees for stations that more than offset a slight drop in advertising revenue.

CBS's total revenue was $3.42 billion, up from $3.37 billion in the same quarter last year. Its net income rose 16 percent, to $391 million from $338 million last year. Its earnings per share were 60 cents, compared with 50 cents a share last year.

Excluding a one-time adjustment, the company earned $426 million, or 65 cents a share.

Leslie Moonves, CBS's chief executive, attributed the results to a continuing “transformation” of the company into one that relies less on advertising revenue and more on distribution revenue than it used to.

The most recent example of a new distribution deal came on Monday, when the company made a multiyear deal with Hulu to stream episodes of old TV shows like “I Love Lucy” on the Web site.

Mr. Moonves, who signed a contract extension last month, said on a conference call with investors Wednesday afternoon that CBS was considering, for the first time, “opportunities to license past seasons of current CBS and Showtime programming.” Such deals could let viewers catch up on “The Good Wife” or “Homeland” through services like Hulu or Netflix.

Advertising still accounts for more than half of CBS's revenue. In a few months, the network will televise the year's biggest advertising event, the Super Bowl. Mr. Moonves said Wednesday that some 30-second commercial spots during the game had sold for more than $4 million.

But advertising revenue dipped 3 percent companywide in the third quarter, dragged down by weakness at CBS Radio and six nights of pre-empted prime-time shows during the national political conventions. The company's chief financial officer, Joseph Ianniello, said some political ad buys were shifted to the fourth quarter from the third, which ended in September, “as campaigns chose to spend their dollars closer to the election.”

Despite the advertising headwinds, the segment of CBS that includes its broadcast network and its studio posted a 3 percent gain in revenue, in part because of increases in retransmission fees and television license fees. Revenue in the segment that includes its local stations increased 1 percent, with gains at its television stations offset by losses at its radio stations.

Acknowledging a continued drift away from live viewing of prime-time TV shows, Mr. Moonves said CBS would “make it a priority” to get paid by advertisers for all viewing. Ad rates are currently set based on the viewing of commercials within three days of their air date, a standard known as C3, but Mr. Moonves said CBS wanted to be paid for viewing “beyond C3.”

Election Night Ratings Come Close to 2008 Record

While the nation's votes were being counted on Tuesday night, more than 66 million viewers were watching news coverage on a baker's dozen of television channels, according to estimates released by Nielsen on Wednesday.

Viewership came close to matching the modern-day election night ratings record set back in 2008, when 71.5 million viewers watched from 8 to 11 p.m. This year, about 66.8 million viewers were watching on one of the 13 networks with news coverage counted by Nielsen.

President Obama‘s re-election was projected by the major networks between 11 and 11:30 p.m. Nielsen did not release an audience total for that time period. The first network to make the projection, NBC, was also the most-watched one on Tuesday night, with 12.1 million viewers between 8 and 11 p.m. The ratings represented a “resounding victory” for NBC, “grounded in accurate journalism that was on full display last night,” Steve Capus, the NBC News president, said on Wednesday .

Fox News Channel came in second with 11.5 million viewers, followed by ABC with 10.5 million, CNN with 9.3 million, and CBS with 7.9 million. The Fox broadcast network had 4.9 million viewers and MSNBC had 4.7 million.

Hourly ratings were not immediately available for the broadcast networks, so it was impossible to say how many viewers stayed awake for Mr. Obama's victory speech at 1:45 a.m. But the hourly ratings for Fox News, CNN and MSNBC showed a stark difference in viewer behavior. Fox News had 10.1 million viewers in the 11 p.m. hour when it named Mr. Obama the winner of the election, but just 2.7 million viewers in the 1 a.m. hour when Mr. Obama spoke. CNN, on the other hand, had 10.7 million viewers at 11 p.m., and still had 8.2 million at 1 a.m., indicating a desire to stay up for the president's speech.

Because CNN had a bigger audience into the early morning hours on Wednesday, it was able to declare a rare victory over Fox News between the hou rs of 7 p.m. and 2 a.m.

Before Breaking a Lease, Check Your Renter\'s Policy

An article in Wednesday's paper detailed the woes of New York City renters whose apartments are uninhabitable because of Hurricane Sandy. Some renters, the article said, were wondering if they should break their leases and find another place to live.

But tenants who have bought renter's insurance may have other options if they want to stay in their current location.

Loretta Worters of the Insurance Information Institute says the “additional living expense” provision of renter's insurance, also known as “loss of use” coverage, may come into play if you're unable to live in your apartment due to a covered event like a hurricane.

In that case, she said, most policies will reimburse additional living expenses, but they may set limits on the amount they will pay. Covered expenses include hotel bills, temporary rentals, restaurant meals and other costs you have to pay while the apartment is being repaired or rebuilt.

“Typically, if you live in a certain size and type of apartment, you will get something” for a comparable dwelling, she wrote.

There are caveats, of course. “Each case is different, each policy is different,” she said.

If there's flooding, for instance, you probably won't be reimbursed because most standard renter's policies don't cover flooding. There are exceptions, she said, but “most don't.” You can buy flood insurance from the federal National Flood Insurance Program, but that program doesn't cover additional living expense, she said.

If you have no heat, or no electricity, you may be covered for your additional expenses, but it depends on the specific language in your policy. Sometimes, she said, the policy will provide coverage if you have only structural damage, but it depends on the situation.

Further, the amount of coverage provided for additional living expenses depends on the specific policy language, she said.  There are often dollar limits - in some cases, 20 percent or more of your policy's liability limit. A standard liability limit on a rental policy is $100,000, so that would mean benefits of at least $20,000. Some people buy much higher liability limits, so the coverage for additional living expenses would be higher.

Insurers may also place time limits on coverage for living expenses, usually, one to two years.

She advises checking with your insurance company about the alternative arrangements you plan to make, to make sure they're reasonable and will be covered.

What if your landlord is waiving your rent while the apartment is unlivable? Ms. Worters said any arrangement with your landlord probably wouldn't affect your coverage for additional living expenses because the insurance company wouldn't know that your rent was waived. “The honesty factor comes into play here,” she said.

Are you seeking additional living expenses under a renter's policy? Do you expect yo ur claim to be covered?

Before Breaking a Lease, Check Your Renter\'s Policy

An article in Wednesday's paper detailed the woes of New York City renters whose apartments are uninhabitable because of Hurricane Sandy. Some renters, the article said, were wondering if they should break their leases and find another place to live.

But tenants who have bought renter's insurance may have other options if they want to stay in their current location.

Loretta Worters of the Insurance Information Institute says the “additional living expense” provision of renter's insurance, also known as “loss of use” coverage, may come into play if you're unable to live in your apartment due to a covered event like a hurricane.

In that case, she said, most policies will reimburse additional living expenses, but they may set limits on the amount they will pay. Covered expenses include hotel bills, temporary rentals, restaurant meals and other costs you have to pay while the apartment is being repaired or rebuilt.

“Typically, if you live in a certain size and type of apartment, you will get something” for a comparable dwelling, she wrote.

There are caveats, of course. “Each case is different, each policy is different,” she said.

If there's flooding, for instance, you probably won't be reimbursed because most standard renter's policies don't cover flooding. There are exceptions, she said, but “most don't.” You can buy flood insurance from the federal National Flood Insurance Program, but that program doesn't cover additional living expense, she said.

If you have no heat, or no electricity, you may be covered for your additional expenses, but it depends on the specific language in your policy. Sometimes, she said, the policy will provide coverage if you have only structural damage, but it depends on the situation.

Further, the amount of coverage provided for additional living expenses depends on the specific policy language, she said.  There are often dollar limits - in some cases, 20 percent or more of your policy's liability limit. A standard liability limit on a rental policy is $100,000, so that would mean benefits of at least $20,000. Some people buy much higher liability limits, so the coverage for additional living expenses would be higher.

Insurers may also place time limits on coverage for living expenses, usually, one to two years.

She advises checking with your insurance company about the alternative arrangements you plan to make, to make sure they're reasonable and will be covered.

What if your landlord is waiving your rent while the apartment is unlivable? Ms. Worters said any arrangement with your landlord probably wouldn't affect your coverage for additional living expenses because the insurance company wouldn't know that your rent was waived. “The honesty factor comes into play here,” she said.

Are you seeking additional living expenses under a renter's policy? Do you expect yo ur claim to be covered?

The Breakfast Meeting: Special Election Hangover Edition

Beyond the candidates, some other assorted winners and losers from last night.

1) Twitter managed an election-night load of traffic and didn't fail.

2) Poll trackers like Nate Silver, TPM's Polltracker and Electoral-vote.com, took on the conventional wisdom of many pundits â€" and came out on top. Their success, as many of them would admit, rest of the relative accuracy of the polls themselves in this election. On Fox News, even Megyn Kelly, the co-anchor, admitted Tuesday night that the polls largely held.

3) Megyn Kelly â€" again â€" turned what could have been a Walk of Shame into one of the evening's most compelling pieces of television. After Karl Rove complained on the air that Fox News had called Ohio too early, Ms. Kelly took a walk through the studio into the backroom where the channel's decision desk was housed and interrogated her own polling experts.

4) Local television stations reaped a windfall in advertising dollars because of the unp recedented spending unleashed by the Citizens United court decision.

5) ABC suffered through a blackout in the middle of its election broadcast.

6) A local news anchor in Ohio said “she had no choice” about taking part in an anti-Obama special that aired on several Sinclair Broadcast Group stations.

Judge Rules for Employees in 401(k) Fee Case

About a year ago, Ron Lieber wrote a Your Money column that described a closely watched case in which employees of a large manufacturing company, ABB Inc., had sued their employer and Fidelity, the manager of its retirement plan, for charging excessive fees.

This spring, a judge for the federal District Court for the Western District of Missouri ruled in the case, finding that ABB had breached its fiduciary duty - meaning that it failed to act in the best interests of the retirement plan and Fidelity's employees - in several ways, including a failure to properly track record-keeping fees paid to Fidelity. The court also found that Fidelity breached its fiduciary duty to ABB's retirement plan by failing to properly allocate interest earned from the overnight investment of plan funds.

The judge, Nanette Laughrey, ordered ABB to pay $35.2 million in damages and Fidelity to pay $1.7 million.

Last week, the judge further ordered ABB and Fidelity to pay $13.4 m illion in attorney fees and costs. In ordering the payment, Judge Laughrey wrote that “ABB breached its fiduciary duties of both loyalty and prudence to the retirement plans, as a result of which it benefited significantly while plan beneficiaries were deprived of millions of dollars. Fidelity, while less culpable, also took plan assets in violation of its fiduciary duty.”

She said the results of the case “may help benefit other plan beneficiaries, in the event of similar litigation, by further clarifying the duty of loyalty and prudence owed by record keepers and employers.”

In an e-mail, Fidelity said it believed the initial ruling in the case “was in error, and it is being appealed.”

Fidelity also said it disagreed with the court's finding that Fidelity and ABB should pay attorney's fees and said it intended to appeal that finding as well, “since the vast majority of the claims against Fidelity were dismissed by the court, as they have been in prior cases.”

Fidelity also said that it provides “valuable services to 401(k) clients for whom Fidelity serves as a record keeper and trustee,” adding, “We believe the fees charged and the compensation collected by Fidelity for those services are reasonable.”

Do you understand the fees your company pays to your retirement plan?

Cable Networks Help Time Warner\'s Quarterly Profit

A strong quarter at Time Warner's suite of cable networks contributed to the company's 1.9 percent increase in third-quarter net profit, but revenue was offset by continued weakness at its magazine and movie divisions.

Time Warner reported net income of $838 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, or 86 cents a share, compared with $822 million, or 78 cents a share, in the same period last year. Overall revenue at the company fell 3 percent, to $6.8 billion.

The company's networks division, which includes cable channels like TNT, TBS and HBO, reported its best quarter ever, with $1.2 billion in operating income, a 12 percent increase from 2011.

The gap between the high-performing television networks and the company's Time Inc. publishing unit and Warner Brothers movie studio was stark. TBS was up 35 percent in prime-time viewers aged 18 to 49, for example, while at Time Inc. subscription and advertising revenue fell 6 percent and 5 percent.

Ove rall revenue fell 6 percent to $838 million at Time Inc., the publisher of People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly among other magazines. Operating income at Time Inc. increased by 2 percent, largely because of cost-cutting.

The company's movie and television studio suffered mostly because of comparisons to the same three-month period last year, which included revenue from hits like “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ and syndication revenue from “The Big Bang Theory.” Revenue at the film and television division fell 12 percent to $2.9 billion, and operating income fell 37 percent to $328 million.

“Our studio faced difficult comparisons in the third quarter, but Warner Brothers Television is having a terrific broadcast season,” said Jeffrey L. Bewkes, chief executive of Time Warner. He added: “Over all, I'm very confident about how we're positioned heading into the next year and beyond.”

Wednesday Reading: One Low, Low Price for Sun and Sand

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

• Suzuki's small cars weren't a fit in the United States. (Business)
• F.D.A. clears a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. (Business)
• Stuffing, set free from turkey. (Dining)
• Your new best friend: the sommelier. (Dining)
• Companies resist stronger online privacy rules for children. (Bits)
• Britax recalls 55,500 child restraints. (Wheels)
• Fuel economy in the United States is at a high. (Wheels)
• Loading photos from camera to iPad. (Gadgetwise)
• Can exercise protect the brain from fatty foods? (Well)
• The vagina (and penis) dialogues. (Motherlode)
• November college checklist for juniors. (The Choice)
• Moving back home after college can be a good thing. (Booming)
• On e low, low price for sun and sand. (Frugal Traveler)