Latest in Viacom Earnings

While Viacom’s fourth-quarter earnings showed some positive signs, edging Wall Street’s estimates and delivering evidence of a turnaround at Paramount, CEO Bob Bakish conceded Nickelodeon has shown “some softness.” As evidenced by the recent leadership change that saw Brian Robbins succeed Cyma Zarghami as head of…

UPDATED at 7AM PT with executive comments: Viacom ended its fiscal year with a mixed-to-positive fourth quarter featuring a slim total revenue gain and better-than-expected advertising results but also softness in domestic affiliate revenue and ongoing struggles at Paramount. Total revenue of $3.3 billion in the…

You can’t say that the first three months of this year represented a good quarter for Viacom considering that domestic ad sales and filmed entertainment were both down. But while the company fell short of Wall Street’s revenue expectations, it beat on adjusted earnings — due in part to lower expenses than some…

There’s mixed results in the Q4 report, but we’ll see whether it registers with Wall Street at a time when so many investors are so concerned about U.S. TV advertising. For the quarter that ended in December, Viacom reported net income of $500 million, down 8.6% from the period in 2013, on revenues of $3.34 billion…

It wasn’t a quarter for the record books, but could have been worse. Viacom says this morning that net income improved 16.3% to $557M in the last three months of 2013 on revenues of $3.2B, -3.5%. The top line missed analyst expectations for $3.3B. Earnings from continuing operations, at $1.20 a share, were a penny…

Viacom‘s shares have been hovering around their all-time high and, unless I’m missing something in the weeds, the latest earnings report shouldn’t change that. In the September quarter the entertainment company generated net earnings from continuing operations of $806M, +25.4% vs the period last year, on revenues of…

With declining ratings at its cable networks and a light film slate, analysts didn’t expect much from Viacom in the quarter that ended in June. But it missed even the Street’s modest predictions. The company reported net earnings of $534M, -7% vs the same period last year, on revenues of $3.24B, -13.9%. The revenue…

UPDATE, 7:00 AM: CEO Philippe Dauman rejects the growing view — articulated yesterday by Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes — that Nickelodeon’s ratings are down because kids are watching much of the channel’s content on Netflix. “There is no silver bullet” Dauman told analysts who wanted to know about the 32% drop in…

UPDATE, 6:54 AM: Here’s how much the 20.4% viewing drop at Nickelodeon – or, as CEO Philippe Dauman euphemistically calls it, “previously disclosed ratings softness” — hurt Viacom in the last quarter of 2011: Without that decline, ad sales for the Media Networks unit would have been up for the quarter, instead of…

UPDATE, 8:50 AM: Listen up Occupy Wall Streeters: Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told analysts that the company is doing better than ever financially – yet is still cutting jobs. It reported a $130M restructuring charge in the fiscal 4Q — $77M coming from the Media Networks and $53M from Filmed Entertainment. That will…

UPDATE, 7:10 AM: CEO Philippe Dauman told analysts that he’s surprised by the attention being paid to the Paramount arrangement with DreamWorks Animation that ends next year. Still, he says that his studio is “proceeding on the operating assumption that we will not be extending” the deal. He doesn’t rule out a renewal…

As earnings begin to trickle in, it’s looking like the advertising rebound of 2010 will have a significant impact on quarterly reports. That ad renaissance also helped media and entertainment conglomerates see a large return on capital investment, and in a report by trend analysis firm Needham Insights, analyst Laura…