Viacom’s 2Q profit falls 32% as sales slide
Viacom’s 2Q profit falls 32% as sales slide
New York: Viacom Inc. said Tuesday its second-quarter profit tumbled 32% as revenue fell amid a weak advertising market, slower video game sales and lower box-office results.
The New York-based media conglomerate controlled by billionaire Sumner Redstone earned $277 million, or 46 cents per share, compared with $407 million, or 65 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Excluding 3 cents per share in severance charges, adjusted earnings were 49 cents per share in the latest quarter. On that basis, earnings beat analyst expectations by a penny per share, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.
Revenue slipped 14% to $3.3 billion, missing analysts’ estimate of $3.5 billion.
Revenue at the company’s media networks segment, which includes the BET and MTV Networks cable TV brands, slid 8% to $1.97 billion, in part because of slower sales of Viacom’s “Rock Band" video game.
Domestic ad revenue dropped 6 percent and international advertising was down 8%.
In Viacom’s filmed entertainment unit, which includes the Paramount Pictures movie studio, box-office results for “Star Trek" and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" fell short of last year’s releases. Theatrical revenue dropped 27% to $584 million, while home entertainment fell 29% to $435 million.
TV licensing fees climbed 5% to $314 million.
Shares of Viacom rose 67 cents, or 2.8%, to $24.92 in morning trading Tuesday.
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