CBS Q1 2019 earnings sees best-ever revenue gains
Details
Michelle Clancy
| 03 May 2019

Broadcast giant CBS has reported its best-ever quarterly revenue, first quarter adjusted operating income and adjusted diluted earnings per share for the first quarter of 2019.

Revenues rose 11% to $4.17 billion, while adjusted profit came in at $1.58 billion, or $4.21 a share, up from $511 million, or $1.32 a share, a year ago.

However, CBS enjoyed a $768 million tax benefit from reorganising its international operations, without which profit would have been down 1%. Adjusted earnings per share rose 2% to $1.37 from $1.34.

"CBS has once again grown across all of our key financial metrics, while continuing to invest in our future as a global multiplatform premium content company," said Joe Ianniello, president and acting CEO at CBS. "We delivered higher profits and achieved double-digit revenue growth, helped in part by Super Bowl LIII and strong increases in affiliate and subscription fee revenues.”

Advertising revenue grew 18%, and affiliate and subscription fee revenue rose 13%; the latter was spurred by gains for the CBS All Access and Showtime streaming services.

“At a time when others are losing subscribers, our total number of subs across traditional MVPDs, virtual MVPDs and our direct-to-consumer services once again grew strongly during the quarter,” Ianniello said. “In fact, our direct-to-consumer subs grew 71% from last year, and we are seeing strong growth here in the second quarter thanks to premium original series such as The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access and Billions on Showtime.”

At the same time, the broadcaster continued to produce more and more content for a variety of buyers, including Amazon, Apple and Netflix, which will debut the series Dead to Me from CBS Television Studios this week.