Viacom
continued the parade of weak advertising results among media companies -- and that didn’t please stock market investors.
Viacom’s domestic advertising for its media networks sank 9%,
which follows a 5% drop in its fiscal second quarter and a 6% drop in its fiscal first quarter. All this comes from continued double-digit percentage ratings declines at its TV networks. In addition,
worldwide advertising revenues were 2% lower.
In midday Thursday trading, Viacom’s stock was down a big 10% to $46.17.
Still, worldwide growth from affiliate fees --2% -- boosted
cable networks' overall revenue to come in flat versus the same quarterly period a year before -- $2.6 billion. Cable networks also witnessed higher sales to subscription video on demand and other
platforms -- up 10% in revenues.
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Cable networks were also subject to unfavorable currency exchange issues. Without these, cable network revenues would have climbed 2%.
Viacom’s
Paramount film division had tougher news -- off 44% to $479 million. It had difficult comparisons to a year before when it had “Transformers: Age of Extinction.” Also its
home-entertainment revenues was down 30% to $199 million.
Company-wide revenues sank 11% to $3.1 billion; net income was down 1% to $645 million.