WSJ By The Numbers - Top 10 for Oct.19
Reality
TV - NBC
Universal to Slash Costs In News, Prime-Time Programs: NBC Universal
expects to post operating profit of $3 billion in 2006 on revenue of $16.5
billion. The company expects revenue from digital initiatives such as new
Internet offerings will exceed $1 billion by 2009, up from $400 million
this year.
NBC Universal, which runs the No. 1-rated network news operation, currently spends about $1.5 billion annually on news gathering. By comparison, NBC's new hit series "Heroes" costs $2.7 million an episode. "Friday Night Lights," a primetime drama, costs $2.6 million an episode. The game show "Deal or No Deal" costs $1.1 million an episode.
| Why It Takes a Doctorate To Beat Inflation: The typical American worker with a four-year college degree earns 45% more money than a similar worker who didn't go beyond high school. Tax-return data crunched by Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley show that the top 1% in the U.S. got 16% of all income in 2004, compared with 9% in 1984. | 45% Degree Premium |
| IPod Sales Fuel Apple's Net Rise, Defying Worries: Apple sold sold 8.7 million iPods in the 3rd quarter for $1.56 billion in revenue, up from 6.5 million iPods and $1.21 billion in revenue a year earlier. By comparison, Apple's Mac business shined brightly as the company sold 1.6 million Macs, for revenue of $2.21 billion -- its best selling quarter for the computers ever. | 8.7M iPod Sales |
|
Consumer Prices Fall, But Core Measure Inches Higher: Consumer prices fell 0.5% in September, led by a 13.5% plunge in gasoline prices, the Labor Department said. Excluding food and energy, the "core" measure of consumer prices rose 0.2% for the third consecutive month.After rising at an annual rate of more than 3.5% in the second quarter, core inflation increased at a slower 2.9% in the third quarter. |
2.9% Core Inflation |
| Led by AMR, Airlines Queue Up for Profitability: Of the 10 largest U.S. airlines, six including AMR are expected to be profitable for the third quarter. The airline industry as a whole should post a profit for the third quarter, which will mark the group's first back-to-back quarterly profitability in six years after a downturn that accumulated more than $40 billion in losses since 2001. | $40B Airlines Loss |
| Curbs Appear to Ease Pace of China Growth: China's GDP for the first nine months of 2006 was 10.7% higher than in the same period last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The figure indicates that the economy slowed somewhat in the July-September quarter after expanding 10.9% in the first half. | 10.7% China GDP |
| H-P Retook Lead For PC Shipments In Third Quarter: Dell grabbed the No.1 spot in PC unit sales from H-P in 2003. Now H-P has reclaimed the No.2 title, taking 16.3% of world-wide shipments in the third period, edging out Dell's 16.1% share, according to Gartner. IDC, which includes some types of systems that Gartner doesn't, put both companies at 17.2% of the market, though it said H-P's shipments were slightly higher than Dell's. PC shipments for all manufacturers increased 7.9% to 57 million in the third quarter, according to IDC, while Gartner said sales rose 6.7% to 59.1 million. | No.1 HP |
| What's Up in Furniture? The Prices: U.S. retail sales of furniture and bedding rose 7.2% to $83.23 billion for the 12 months ended in June, according to a monthly furniture-industry report by investment bank Mann, Armistead & Epperson. Home Depot sources nearly 60% of its merchandise overseas. Overall, last year, 43.1% of all furniture sold in the U.S. was made overseas, compared with just 24.3% that was manufactured abroad 10 years ago. | $83.23B Furniture |
| More Home Loans Go Sour: Some 2.33% of mortgages were delinquent at the end of the third quarter, the highest level since 2003, according to Equifax and Moody's Economy.com. The seasonally adjusted mortgage-delinquency rate reached its most-recent peak of 2.53% in the first quarter of 2002, according to Equifax and Moody's Economy.com. | 2.33% Delinquency |
| Company Cards Can Hurt Credit: About 60% of federal employees and 23% of private-sector employees have corporate credit cards, according to Rick Palmer, a professor at Eastern Illinois University and co-author of a 2004 report and survey of the industry. | 23% Company Card |
|
WSJ By The Numbers - Metrics 2.0 |
|
