Viacom has reported lower adjusted fiscal Q2 earnings, but beats analyst expectations.
zoolander 2The media giant reported adjusted earnings of $303 million. That compared with $467 million in the year-ago period. On a non-adjusted basis, the company had in the year-ago period recorded a loss of $53 million when including a $785 million pre-tax charge for a slew of layoffs and reorganisation moves in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings per share fell to $0.76 from $1.16 in the year-ago period.
The company's film unit posted a big quarterly loss, though, seeing a loss of $136 million after a year-ago profit of $1 million due to the disappointing performances of Zoolander 2, which brought in $56 million worldwide on a $50 million production budget, and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which reached just $23 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.
Philippe Dauman, executive chairman, president and CEO of Viacom, talked up TV success: “Viacom’s brands are among the most popular and culturally connected in the world,” he said.
“Nickelodeon remains the No 1 network for kids, and many of our other networks have shown sequential improvements in ratings and consumption across platforms. The continuing strength of our brands was validated by our recent renewals with DISH and Frontier on attractive terms. In the past year, we have successfully closed long-term carriage agreements with domestic distributors representing more than 44 million subscribers. Around the world we continue to expand the global reach of our networks, launching several new channels in the quarter.”
Separately, Viacom and Roku have announced a partnership that enables Viacom to use aggregated audience insights from Roku to deliver targeted advertising on the Roku platform. And, it unveiled Vantage Studio Edition, the first data-driven marketing solution purpose-built for the movie industry. Vantage Studio Edition uniquely offers precision plus reach, deploying data to find target audiences while maintaining broad awareness.
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