Viacom

Viacom’s Nickelodeon plans to launch a video subscription service this spring, joining the chase for younger viewers who increasingly are watching programming on digital devices.

Viacom unveiled its quarterly financials on Thursday morning before the stock market officially opened, missing the mark on its revenue forecast, though hitting earnings per share more or less on the nose.

Viacom is never ever getting back together with CBS — unless it gets dumped by Dish. The Sumner Redstone-controlled company is facing renewed calls on Wall Street to reunite with its former sibling ahead of a high-stakes battle with Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network over programming fees.

In line with many prior FCC enforcement decisions, the FCC found EAS tone violations appealed by NBCU and Viacom to be “willful” on the grounds that it did not matter whether the parties transmitting the ads knew they were violating a law, only that they intended to air the ads, which neither party disputed. The FCC summed up its position by noting that it “has consistently held that ignorance or mistake of law are not exculpating or mitigating factors when assessing a forfeiture.”

The FCC means business when it tells companies not to use the distinctive Emergency Alert System audio tones to grab audiences’ attention for entertainment — the way Viacom and ESPN did when they ran ads for FilmDistrict’s 2013 thriller Olympus Has Fallen. The regulatory agency today rejected the companies’ claims that they shouldn’t be held responsible, requiring Viacom to pay a $1.12 million fine and ESPN to cough up $280,000.

Time Warner Inc. CEO Jeff Bewkes addressed the idea of eventual consolidation involving rival media companies CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc., while steering clear of any specifics. When asked about the future of Viacom and CBS and whether they could combine with Time Warner, Bewkes said “they may want to be a merger partner for somebody or maybe even for themselves.”

Faced with ratings and advertising declines, the chief executive of Viacom criticized the television research firm Nielsen on Thursday for failing to keep pace with the way people watch TV. Philippe Dauman said that a large portion of the viewing of Viacom networks occurs through mobile apps and other platforms that Nielsen does not include.

Companies including Walt Disney, CBS and Viacom have asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to step in and block an FCC decision that would forcethem to reveal the terms of their business deals. Those deals are part of the public review of Comcast’s $45 billion bid to buy Time Warner Cable and AT&T’s $48 billion plan to buy DirecTV.

Viacom has agreed to let Sony’s forthcoming cloud-based TV service carry 22 Viacom networks upon launch. The deal is the first of its kind for Viacom, a telecommunications giant that owns networks including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and TV Land. Sony’s cloud-based TV service will offer subscribers Internet-based live TV and video on demand from major programmers.

Investors and consumer groups will be watching for just such a possibility following the U.S. District Court decision on Friday to let Cablevision pursue an antitrust claim against Viacom.

Viacom and CBS executive chairman Sumner Redstone — who turns 91 today — has  sold hundreds of millions of dollars in the two companies this month.

Fox Broadcasting and Viacom are angling to join other TV networks set to cash in on as much as $50 million in court-ordered anti-tobacco ads. The ads will appear on ABC, CBS and NBC as part of a 2006 ruling against tobacco companies.

Viacom said it has formalized the creation of a new ad-sales unit, Viacom Velocity, devoted to creating special content for advertisers that can be seen on its cable networks, in digital venues, and, if it’s good enough, in news stories and online posts.

The deal includes “expansive” TV Everywhere rights. Also new for Time Warner Cable customers: The availability of Epix.

A reported deal will see Sony Corp. license the collective cable channels of Viacom for a new broadband-delivered TV service expected to launch by the end of the year. If this deal is real, the entrenched triumvirate of cable, satellite and telco distributors have essentially received a declaration of war from what may be just the first of a new breed of challengers that could include Intel, Google and Apple.

An appeals court is primed to review the long-running dispute a second time.

Viacom is expanding a wide-ranging digital video deal with Amazon — just weeks after ending one with Amazon competitor Netflix. For Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service, Viacom will commit a broad selection of TV shows from Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV and Comedy Central under a multi-year deal.

As the broadcast networks make their glitzy upfront presentations to advertisers this week, another media entity has already started writing some upfront business. Viacom, the owner of cablers including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Spike, has notched some upfront deals, according to people familar with the pace of negotations, by offering terms it believes will be more favorable than those of its competitors in order to drive additional business into its coffers.

Time Warner, Viacom and Comcast all saw growth in their cable network businesses, thanks to distribution fees they charge cable and satellite TV service providers for rights to carry their channels on subscribers’ lineups. The boost in television helped make up for weakness at two of the three major movie studios that reported results Wednesday.

Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit claiming that YouTube is legally liable for hosting copyright-infringing work was dealt a death blow Thursday, when a judge issued a summary judgment in favor of the online video portal. “The burden of showing that YouTube knew or was aware of the specific infringements of the works in suit cannot be shifted to YouTube to disprove,” U.S District Judge Louis Stanton said in his ruling from New York.

Twitter Inc. is close to reaching partnerships with television networks that would bring more high-quality video content and advertising to the social site, according to people familiar with the matter. The San Francisco-based company has held talks with Viacom about hosting TV clips on its site and selling ads alongside them, said two of the people, who asked not to be named. Twitter has also discussed a content partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal, said two of the people.

There’s more to Cablevision’s $1 billion channel bundling battle with Viacom than meets the eye. Many on Wall Street, skeptical of Dolan’s chances of success, think the legal volley was launched as a way for the executive to deal with a myriad of other issues hampering the company.

Cablevision Systems Corp. is claiming that Viacom Inc. sought to extract a nearly $1 billion penalty if it refused to pay for low-rated channels it did not want in order to access more popular channels such as Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman just teased the announcement which he says will be coming “shortly.” The studio’s initiative will be “very small,” beginning with “a project based on one of our film properties,” he said at the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet and Telecom conference.

Viacom Inc.’s Philippe Dauman criticized Cablevision Corp. today for filing an “ill-advised and frivolous” antitrust lawsuit against the media company, in a dispute he said would just turn into a waste of legal fees.

Cablevision, under pressure to do something about rising cable rates, sued Viacom for block booking, for forcing it to pay for and carry networks it had rather not. A Cablevision win would free it up to put its money where its subscribers’ viewership is — major cable networks and local TV stations.

Cablevision says it has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Viacom for allegedly forcing the cable company to carry and pay for 14 lesser-watched ancillary networks. It is seeking to void its December 2012 carriage agreement

Viacom had a rough fiscal first-quarter 2013 down 16% in revenue — mostly due to lower film entertainment results. Its media/TV networks witnessed a 6% decline in domestic and worldwide advertising revenues.

Smaller bonuses led to compensation decreases in fiscal 2012 for the top executives at Viacom Inc., who traditionally have been among the nation’s most richly paid. CEO Philippe Dauman took home $33.5 million in the year that ended Sept. 30, down 22% from the previous year. His No. 2, COO Tom Dooley, saw a 23% drop to $26.3 million. Compensation for Chairman Sumner Redstone, who holds the same title at CBS Corp., dropped 3% to $20.4 million.

Cablevision and Viacom finally reached a deal, and not a moment too soon. With about an hour to go before Times Square was set to usher in the New Year to the strains of “Auld Lang Syne,” the cable provider and the entertainment conglomerate have hammered out a deal to keep SpongeBob and the Situation lit up in New Jersey and Long Island.

Robert Freedman claims that Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, CEO Philippe Dauman and COO Thomas Dooley were overpaid $36.6 million and the shareholder is taking the trio to court to get the money back.

Netflix could make a big impression by acquiring Starz after its spin-off, but a deal seems unlikely