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Reuters
New york
Time Warner Inc, the owner of CNN and the Cartoon Network channels, raised its profit forecast for the year and disclosed a 10 percent stake in streaming TV service Hulu.
Shares of Time Warner, which also owns the Warner Bros movie studio, rose 3.2 percent in premarket trading after the company also reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit as it signed up more viewers to its premium Home Box Office network.
The Hulu deal comes at a time when Time Warner is facing stiff competition from streaming services, particularly Netflix and Amazon Prime, as young viewers ditch traditional cable and shift to online services. Time Warner's Turner unit has been trying to woo younger viewers by offering full seasons of its shows such as"Angie Tribeca" and"Public Morals" for"binge-watching". The company also launched its own streaming service,"HBO Now", last year.
Turner's networks and Turner Classic Movies will be available live and on-demand on Hulu's new live-streaming service, which is slated to launch early next year.
"The Hulu investment is not a surprise," said Matthew Harrigan, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities.
