Latest figures show mucho dough.

A positive and definitive report for l992 on the fortunes of the U.S. film and television industries recently became available from Veronis, Suhler & Associates, the investment banking firm in New York.

The broadcast industry's revenues (including radio) registered a five per cent rise, reaching $19.4 billion.

Cable had an $18 billion banner year in 1992, showing an increase of 21.9 per cent (some $3.7 billion) in operating income.

Film company operating income rose more than 36 per cent, running to 1.3 billion. Revenues were put at $14.7 billion (up 9.5 per cent).The biggest winner was the Walt Disney Co. with revenues up 20.1 per cent.

Breaking out the interactive digital media for the first time, Veronis, Suhler & Associates reported revenues rose by 20.6 per cent over 1991. Operating income was up 55.5 per cent. John Suhler, president of Veronis, Suhler, noted that the rapid growth was due to the spread of video games, and the rising number of homes with personal computers (20 to 25 million). More PCs were sold in 1992 than cars.

In summary, the U.S. communications industry as a whole grew significantly during '92 boosting revenues by 6.4 per cent to an imposing $137.1 billion. By way of contrast, the 1991 study showed a 4.8 per cent decline.

Suhler termed the broadcast segment performance (still no match for the double-digit growth of the 1989-1990 years) "extremely positive and encouraging" And he noted that cost-cutting measures put in place at the networks and elsewhere were "a key factor in boosting profits."

Return on assets also showed a notable improvement last year.

The four networks - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox - showed the revenue curve rising by 5.5 per cent (to $12.1 billion) in 1992. This came after two years of declining earnings. Operating income was up 8.5 per cent to $1.2 billion. Cash flow rose 7.3 per cent. More recent interim figures released by the Television Bureau of Advertising reported total TV ad revenues for 1993 up 4 per cent to $23.7 billion. However, according to Ernst & Young data, the three-network revenue was slightly down in 1993 to $7.4 billion. But, for the same period, they reported a 7.3 per cent net revenue gain to $2.2 billion.

Companies operating both local radio and local television stations showed the most positive advance, reporting $4.3 billion in revenues in 1992, as 5.6 per cent increase over the prior year.

Publicly-owned companies polled in the report include some 60 per cent of all U.S. broadcasting revenues.

Specifically, the studios' performance-a 36.6 per cent rise in operating income during 1992 - looks even better when compared with 1991 when the Veronis-Suhler chart showed a 14.3 per cent decline.

The 1992 revenue front-runner as well as domestic box-office leader - Time Warner, pulled in $3.6 billion, representing a 12.7 per cent increase over the prior year, and collected operating income of $207 million.

Sony reported 1992 revenues of $3.3 billion, but the company doesn't break out either the operating income or revenues for its film operations. MGM had revenues of $729.5 million but recorded an income loss of $55.2 million for the year.

The cable section of the Veronis, Suhler study revealed a growth of 15.5 per cent over the past five years, exceeding the 10.9 per cent rise in subscriber and advertiser spending.

Revenues from pay services fell to 24 per cent from the 33 per cent registered in 1988. Advertising revenues account for four per cent of total income, double what it was in 1988. Tele-Communications, Time Warner and Continental all registered revenues in excess of $1 billion, about half of the entire cable network take.

Individual cable network companies like those owned by Turner and Viacom all registered increases. Turner was up 16.1 per cent, Viacom had a gain of 14.8 per cent.

Operating income shot up by 12.7 per cent. Operating income cash flow margins fell slightly to 19 percent, but cash flow margins moved up 22.8 per cent.