English Entertainment
Viacom Inc misses EPS forecast but revenue beats expectations
Even as its India business, Viacom18, celebrates its 10th anniversary, Viacom Inc’s stock on Nasdaq came under pressure after missing the earnings per share (EPS) forecast for the fourth quarter ended September 30, 2017. The company also reported financial results for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2017.
The EPS for the quarter stood at 77 cents as against Wall Street’s estimate of 85 cents. For the corresponding period last year, the EPS were 69 cents.
During the fourth quarter of 2017, Viacom reported operating income of $705 million as compared to $332 million during the quarter in 2016. Net income for the quarter under review was $674 million, a significant increase over last year ($252 million).
Despite missing the EPS estimate for the quarter, the company did report revenue of $3.32 billion. This is better than its revenue of $3.23 billion from the same quarter of the previous year. It also beat out Wall Street’s revenue estimate of $3.24 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2017.
Viacom President and chief executive officer Bob Bakish said, “In the fourth quarter and full year, we made strong progress against our plan to fundamentally stabilise and revitalise Viacom, with top line gains in both Media Networks and Filmed Entertainment segments driven by continued execution on our strategic priorities. We saw significant ratings increases across the portfolio, which drove sequential improvement in domestic advertising; our international business continues to expand, delivering double-digit revenue increases; and Paramount is demonstrating growth across multiple revenue streams as it rebuilds the theatrical slate and continues to grow its TV production business.”
He added that the company had completed several multi-year renewals of major distribution contracts, including the recent agreement with Charter, which secure broad, long-term carriage of Viacom’s networks for subscribers and expand its relationships with distributors through new advanced advertising and content production partnerships.
The company established a stable base while reducing debt and improved free cash flow during the quarter.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
