Higher TV revenues helped Corus Entertainment to maintain second-quarter earnings unveiled Thursday, despite a challenging advertising market.

Toronto-based Corus posted earnings of $33.5 million for the three months to Feb. 29, against a profit of $32.8 million in 2011.

Overall revenues rose 8% to $205.6 million, against a year-earlier $191 million.

TV revenues were up 10% to $163 million, helped by higher Beyblade merchandise revenues from Nelvana and increased Movie Central pay TV subscriber fees.

Movie Central and HBO Canada had 988,000 paid subscribers at the end of the second quarter.

The TV performance helped offset radio revenues down 1% to $42.3 million.

Elsewhere, specialty subscriber revenues were virtually unchanged from the prior year, advertising revenues grew 2%, and merchandising, distribution and other revenues increased 38% during the latest quarter.

From Playback Daily