AMERICAN IDOL - STRIKE MAY HAVE BENEFITED NETWORK MORE THAN WRITERS

Because of the writers' strike, CBS's audience dropped during the first quarter, and so did its ad revenue, but its profits rose 14 percent to $244.3 million from $213.5 million during the same period a year ago -- way ahead of analysts' estimates. John Blackledge, an analyst with JPMorgan Chase, credited the strike itself, telling Bloomberg News that it helped "on the profit side with lower program costs." Outwardly, the network had seemed to take a big hit as Fox took over the audience lead during the quarter with the help of enormous audiences for the Super Bowl and the twice-weekly American Idol. But the ratings loss was more than offset by lower content costs. At midday on the NYSE, CBS shares were up more than 3 percent to $23.24.

29/04/2008