NEW YORK (AP) — Viacom’s fiscal first-quarter profit met expectations, but revenue slipped on softness in its film and cable divisions. The owner of Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures also announced a deal with Snapchat.
Shares dropped about 11 percent in Tuesday morning trading.
Viacom’s financial results come less than a week after the company announced that Sumner Redstone was stepping down as its executive chairman. He was replaced in the role by CEO Philippe Dauman. Redstone’s daughter Shari has said that she was against Dauman getting the role due to his deep involvement in Redstone family affairs.
For the period ended Dec. 31, Viacom earned $449 million, or $1.13 per share. A year earlier the New York company earned $500 million, or $1.20 per share.
Earnings, adjusted for pretax expenses, were $1.18 per share, meeting the estimates of analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue fell to $3.15 billion from $3.34 billion. That missed the $3.26 billion Wall Street forecast.
Revenue for the film unit declined 15 percent, hurt partly by unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The segment was also dealing with tough comparisons, as the prior-year period included “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” in theaters and “Transformers: Age of Extinction” on DVD.
Revenue for the cable segment dipped 3 percent, also hampered by unfavorable exchange rates. Domestic ad revenue slipped 4 percent, with price hikes more than offset by a drop in traditional ratings at some of its networks.
The deal with Snapchat includes a Comedy Central International channel and an MTV Channel in the U.S., which are viewed as complements to the existing Comedy Central and MTV International Discover channels. Viacom also has the right to sell Snapchat’s US. owned and operated advertising inventory.
Shares of Viacom Inc.’s Class A shares declined $4.91, or 11 percent, to $39.80 in morning trading Tuesday. Those shares have fallen 41 percent over the past year.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (https://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on VIA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/VIA
