CBS grows but station results spring a leak

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CBSRadio was flat and television was down slightly for media giant CBS, but network revenues soared and the company’s bottom line numbers were all comfortably in the black, including an 11% gain in revenues. Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone cites the company’s “remarkable momentum.”


The 11% gain in revenue resulted in a dollar value of $3.7B. Other key metrics included a 5% gain in OIBDA to $952M; a 6% gain in operating income to $838M and a 12% gain in earnings per diluted share to $0.76.

Redstone commented, “CBS’s remarkable momentum continues to build. This is a Company built for long-term success, and I know Les and his team will continue to execute in the quarters and years to come.”

Added President/CEO Les Moonves, “Double-digit revenue growth—and the best quarterly profits we’ve ever had—add up to a phenomenal quarter for CBS. Across the board, CBS’s world-class content continues to drive our results. From Under the Dome, which is changing the face of summer programming on network television, to Ray Donovan, which has refilled the pipeline at Showtime in a big way, new owned content continues to flourish throughout our Company. As a result, our base business is thriving, and our non-advertising revenue sources are having a bigger impact on our results all the time. Looking ahead, the opportunities to monetize our content are more exciting than ever. In addition, we are well on our way to completing our strategic initiatives in our Outdoor segment—including the pending sale of our business in Europe and Asia and the separation of our Outdoor Americas business, which is right on track. All of this gives us great confidence in our future, and it’s why we announced last week our largest increase ever to our share repurchase program. We remain committed to returning value to our shareholders, and we are certain we can deliver lucrative results for the remainder of this year, next year, and beyond as well.”

Advertising overall was up 5%, with a lot of the credit going to income generated during the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Entertainment group, which includes the CBS Television Network, had a very good quarter, gaining 18% to $1.71B. Licensing, syndication, advertising and affiliate fees all contributed to the growth. However, OIBDA was up only 1% to $429M, due to increased investment in television content and sports programming.

Radio and television stations are counted together, and lost 1% between them, with a revenue figure of $698M. As we noted, radio was flat and television was down 1%, largely due to the lack of political advertising.