- Obama says Boosting US Jobs is Top Priority
- More Consumers Giving 'Black Friday' the Cold Shoulder
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- Hewlett-Packard Earnings Rise, Match Guidance
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Cramer: What Monday’s Housing Number Really Means
- Why the Dollar Will Likely Stay Weak for Some Time
- Bear, Lehman Execs Weren't Wiped Out by Crisis: Study
- How Real Estate Investors Skew Housing's Reality
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- HP's Mark Hurd
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Gold Prices Can Double in 3 Years: Portfolio Manager
- Nov. 23: Unusual Volume Leaders
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Apple Comes to AT&T's Rescue
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- Paul: Audit the Fed
- JAL Slides to Record Low on Bankruptcy Jitters
- Hewlett-Packard Profit Rises, Matches Guidance
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
- Why Amazon Rules Retail
- Holiday Travel Outlook
Text Size 
Viacom's quarterly profit breezed past expectations as consumers set aside money worries to scoop up the new Beatles video game and buy tickets for box-office hits like "Transformers" and "G.I. Joe."
 |
CNBC.com |
Cost-cutting also helped Viacom [VIA
Loading...
()
], which overcame a continued slump in advertising sales that has hurt the entire media industry, as corporations have held back on rolling out big, new television campaigns. Shares rose 3.4 percent in early trade.
Overall, Viacom, which runs a host of media businesses including MTV, Comedy Central and the Paramount movie studio, said Tuesday that profit rose to $463 million, or 76 cents a share, from $401 million, or 65 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.
Adjusted earnings totaled 69 cents per share, well ahead of the 57 cents per share analysts had expected.
While Viacom is not as dependent on advertising as some other media companies — such as corporate sibling CBS [CBS
Loading...
()
] — it still gets about 30 percent of annual revenue from ads. In the third quarter, U.S. advertising revenue fell 4 percent, while worldwide advertising revenue dropped 5 percent.
A solid quarter at the box office from Paramount helped make up for the tough advertising environment. While DVD sales slumped, pulling worldwide home entertainment revenue down 21 percent, consumers showed a willingness to hit the movie theaters during the summer months.
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" jump-started Paramount's box office totals. Worldwide theatrical revenue rose 16 percent in the quarter.
The company also cited "strong" sales of the new video game "The Beatles: Rock Band," though it did not break out figures for the game in its quarterly earnings release.
Still, overall revenue fell 3 percent to $3.32 billion, largely in line with the $3.3 billion expected from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
As a result, the company banked heavily on cost-cutting during the quarter. Total expenses drop nearly 7 percent to $2.53 billion.
Shares of Viacom, up 47 percent this year, rose about 3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.
- The show attracts a big TV audience every year, but this year it may take on even more importance.
- …you'll want to be prepared. Tips for getting the most out of the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy.
- Congressman Ron Paul explains to Squawk Box why he’s pushing legislation to audit the Federal Reserve.
- CNBC’s Phil LeBeau took a test drive of GM’s flagship electric car. Here’s what he thought of the Volt.
- The energy company Power Efficiency is building tools that regulate the power electric motors use.
- CNBC’s technology reporter Jim Goldman guides you through the best gadgets to buy this holiday season.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes