Discovery Communications 4Q Misses Street

Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:DISCA) saw shares rise on Friday, when it reported fourth-quarter earnings that rose 34%.

The company, which owns a part of the Oprah Winfrey Network, forecast 2011 revenue in the range of $4 billion to $4.1 billion, in-line with the Street’s forecast for revenue of $4.05 billion.

The company posted a profit of $202 million, or 47 cents a share, compared with year-ago earnings of $151 million, or 35 cents a share.

Revenue rose 7% to $1.02 billion, up from year-ago sales of $964 million.

The results came in shy of expectations, as analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 51 cents a share on revenue of $1.03 billion.

"Discovery delivered another year of strong and consistent growth in 2010 as we leveraged our diverse slate of quality content across our worldwide distribution platform in an improving global economic environment,” said David Zaslav, Discovery's President and Chief Executive Officer, in a release. We generated significant advertising and distribution revenue growth while thoughtfully managing our cost base.”

Shares of Discovery rose 50 cents, or 1.16%, on Friday, finishing the day at $43.75 a share. The stock was down 42 cents in after-hours trading.