UPDATE 2-Lions Gate Q2 swings to profit on TV, lower costs

* Q2 profit, revenues beat Wall Street estimates

* Q2 net EPS 26 cents vs loss of 44 cents in '08 Q2

* Q2 revenues up 3 pct from year ago

* Shares up 5 pct after earnings report (Adds EPS forecast, analyst comment, details, byline)

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Independent film studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGF.N) on Monday swung to a profit on gains at its television operations and lower film production costs, far outstripping Wall Street forecasts and sending its shares up 5 percent.

TV production revenue rose 30 percent to $88.9 million on gains in domestic series licensing for "Weeds," "Mad Men," "Crash," "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," "Meet the Browns" and "The Wendy Williams Show," and on higher international and DVD sales for the series.

Caris & Co analyst David Miller called the results outstanding and said they show that Lions Gate had responded for two consecutive quarters to pressure to cut costs from shareholder activists, including billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

"They kept costs in line. Icahn would obviously be happy," Miller said.

Lions Gate Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer said in a statement that the company was on track to meet its financial targets for the year and was well positioned for strong financial results in the future.

The Santa Monica, California-based company reported a second-quarter net profit of $31.7 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $51.8 million, or 44 cents a share. Excluding nonrisk prints and advertising, Lions Gate's earnings were 27 cents per share.

That soundly beat analysts' average forecast for adjusted earnings of 6 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $393.7 million, also beating Wall Street's average expectation of $375.4 million.

Overall motion picture revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30 fell 11 percent from last year's second quarter, with just two movie releases -- "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself" and "Gamer" -- compared with four wide releases in 2008.

The home entertainment business fell by 25 percent, year to year, on a weaker release slate including "Crank: High Voltage," "The Haunting in Connecticut" and "Horsemen."

A stronger slate of films hit the pay TV window in the second quarter, driving up motion picture-related TV revenues by 10 percent.

International film revenues dropped 4 percent from last year on fewer films.

The company's executives are set to discuss the results on a Tuesday morning conference call with analysts.

Lions Gate shares, which closed 6 percent higher on the New York Stock Exchange ahead of the quarterly earnings report, climbed another 5.2 percent to $5.69 in after-hours trade. (Reporting by Gina Keating; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Gary Hill)