NEW YORK - Viacom on Tuesday said first-quarter profit fell 18 percent from last year on lower revenue at its CBS television unit, but the media conglomerate cited double-digit growth in its cable-TV business.
Viacom reported earnings of 585 million dollars, or 36 cents a share, down from 710.5 million, or 41 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Excluding a tax benefit, first-quarter net earnings from continuing operations were 508 million dollars, or 29 cents a share.
Revenue rose five percent to 5.6 billion dollars, boosted by a 19 percent gain generated at its cable networks division.
The company said TV revenue and operating income declined because of the absence of the Super Bowl and political ad spending.
But the outlook was more sanguine. "CBS is going into the upfront advertising season with the strongest ratings and demographic mix in over 10 years, which bodes very well for us for the rest of 2005 and into 2006," Viacom said.
For 2005, the media company forecasted high single-digit growth in earnings per share above the figure of 1.54 dollars per share reported in 2004.
04/19/2005 14:51 GMT