Viacom profit falls on weak advertising

Feb 2, 2012, 19:22 GMT

Los Angeles - Media conglomerate Viacom posted a 65-per-cent drop in quarterly profits Thursday as its cable TV stations attracted fewer ads and it booked a 379-million-dollar charge related to the sale of its Rock Band video-game company Harmonix.

The owner of Paramount Pictures, MTV and Comedy Central said it earned 212 million dollars in its fiscal first quarter compared to 610 million dollars a year earlier. Revenue increased 3 per cent to 3.95 billion dollars.

Paramount's sales were boosted 4 per cent to 1.6 billion dollars on the strong performance of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which has taken in 575 million dollars worldwide.

But advertising on its cable properties was sharply down, largely due to viewer flight from Viacom's kid's channel Nickelodeon, chief executive Phillippe Dauman said. 'If we hadn't had the Nickelodeon ratings issues, our advertising sales would have been a growth for the quarter,' he said.