Viacom reports mixed earnings for fiscal Q1
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 06 February 2019

Media giant Viacom has missed Wall Street expectations for the first quarter of its fiscal 2019, reporting total revenue of $3.1 billion, up 1%, and profit of $321 million leading to a reported $1.12 in earnings, a 9% increase from a year ago.

Viacom’s main cable networks segment, Media Networks (which includes Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon), brought in $2.5 billion in revenue in the quarter, which met analyst expectations but still represented a 2% decline year-over-year, mainly due to flagging advertising. Adjusted operating income stayed flat at $913 million, beating the $868 million that analysts had been expecting.

Filmed Entertainment, aka the Paramount film studio, rode the success of the Bumblebee Transformers movie and Instant Family to come it at $621 million in revenue – that missed analyst expectations of $638 million, but improved on last year’s FQ1 revenue of $544 million. Adjusted operating income increased 31% to a loss of $90 million – which was better than the $109 million operating loss that analysts had expected.

Meanwhile, management talked up an OTT future. “Beyond the growth at our flagship networks and the resurgence of Paramount Pictures, we took a major step forward in our evolution with an agreement to acquire Pluto TV,” Bakish said in the company’s earnings announcement. “This service will create a scaled direct-to-consumer offering for Viacom, and expand our opportunities in next-generation distribution and advanced advertising. With this momentum, we are progressing toward a return to top-line growth in 2019 as Viacom continues to evolve for the future.”