Viacom beat Wall Street expectations with its Q3 financial results. The movie studio side led the way, but Viacom’s cable networks also grew revenues.
Total revenues rose 22% to $4.05 billion. At Paramount, the movie studio, revenues more than doubled and the home entertainment business grew 26%. So film revenue jumped 46% to $1.79 billion.
Cable networks revenues rose 8% to $2.29 million. CEO Philippe Dauman credited growth in both advertising and subscriber fees. However, he did warn analysts that advertising is looking a little softer in the current quarter. Also, the company is expecting a “blip” in this quarter because of an “inexplicable” ratings drop for Nickelodeon. Dauman said Viacom is working with Nielsen to see what is going on – and he wants to fix the issue because “toys are a strong category this quarter.”
Viacom also announced an increase in its stock buyback program – to $10 billion, leaving about $7.2 billion available for buying back shares over the next couple of years.
