ViacomCBS

Former CBS shareholders reached a proposed $167.5 million settlement to resolve allegations that Shari Redstone, the daughter of late media magnate Sumner Redstone, pressured the company into an unfair merger that created ViacomCBS Inc, now known as Paramount Global, according to a court filing.

Shares of ViacomCBS are down more than 20% in early trading as Wall Street digests the company’s streaming strategy, outlook and financials announced after the market closed Tuesday, and clearly has some issues.  MoffettNathanson said: “Despite the big announcement of ViacomCBS changing its name … we are left with a similar question as we had last year: will the company be able to grow EBITDA and FCF again to match prior levels? In short, unfortunately, we still did not learn anything to help us believe the answer will be yes, at least for the foreseeable future.”

In their last outings as leaders of ViacomCBS, the executive team led by Shari Redstone and Bob Bakish finally started to sound like they have a solid plan to compete in streaming. On the day ViacomCBS unveiled its corporate rebrand to Paramount, starting today, the company put on a nearly three-hour virtual presentation for investors that demonstrated how much its operations have been turned inside out to focus on streaming growth opportunities. (Thomas Woo photo)

The biggest news of Tuesday’s call with analysts was a renaming of the company built by the late Sumner Redstone — eliminating his long-used Viacom, while CBS remains for the TV network. But beginning Wednesday, Feb. 16, the parent company will called Paramount. President-CEO Bob Bakish did hail the top shows on CBS as examples of how the company is leading on all platforms. But the focus of the presentation was clearly streaming — primarily Paramount+,

ViacomCBS execs Bob Bakish and Shari Redstone on Tuesday announced that the merged company will be known as simply Paramount, beginning Wednesday, Feb. 16. (The parent company’s legal name is technically Paramount Global.) Shares of Paramount will trade on the Nasdaq as PARAA (class A common), PARA (Class B common) and PARAP (Preferred Stock), beginning with trading on Feb. 17 at 9:30 a.m. ET.

ViacomCBS badly missed Wall Street forecasts for earnings per share in the fourth quarter, but added a record 9.4 million streaming subscribers and smashes revenue projections. Wall Street analysts had expected earnings of 43 cents, but they came in at 26 cents on an adjusted, diluted basis compared with $1.04 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue of $8 billion, though, far outdistanced estimates for $7.51 billion, climbing 16%.

The multiyear renewal covers CBS affiliates in 39 markets owned by Nexstar and Its operating partners.

It includes distribution of ViacomCBS’s TV networks, including CBS Television Network, BET, CBS Sports Network, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Pop TV, Smithsonian Channel, Showtime and others.

The CW Network’s Chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz assured the staff at the younger-skewing network Thursday that it’s “too early to speculate what might happen” as joint-parent companies ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia explore a sale of the broadcast network to Nexstar Media Group.

AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS are exploring a possible sale of a significant stake or all of the CW Network, which they jointly own, according to people familiar with the matter. Among the suitors is Nexstar Media Group, the nation’s biggest TV station group and a large owner of affiliates of the network, the people close to the talks said. The CW caters primarily to teens and young adults.

Susan Zirinsky, former CBS News president, is back in a job where she can do one of her favorite things: tell a few stories. Zirinsky heads See It Now Studios, an independent production unit that she expects to launch documentary films and series for a range of ViacomCBS properties as well as outside parties. “I’m not a sliver of the network, or producing just for the inside,” she says. “My mandate is to be a studio.”

ViacomCBS’s $1.85 billion sale of its CBS Studio Center lot — known in the industry as CBS Radford — represents the end of an era for the company, and a further shift away from physical properties by legacy entertainment companies as their streaming counterparts bulk up.

ViacomCBS announced a deal to sell L.A.’s CBS Studio Center to two investment firms for $1.85 billion, the latest in a series of real-estate divestitures for the company. The media conglomerate had confirmed this summer that it was looking to sell CBS Studio Center, which sits on a 55-acre site in Studio City.

Those businesses will become one of three stand-alone reporting segments, along with traditional television (broadcast and cable) and film.

ViacomCBS cracked the $1 billion mark in streaming revenue in the third quarter, but overall results were more mixed, with total revenue rising 13% to $6.6 billion and earnings per share declining to 69 cents. Advertising inched up 1%. Cable network ad revenue gained 6%. Free, ad-supported streaming outlet Pluto TV continued to be a mainstay, with revenue up 99% and monthly active users rising to 54 million, paced by global expansion.

CBS earlier this year mulled selling its sprawling New York-based CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. A source said that the company had “looked at” selling the Broadcast Center — located at 524 West 57th St. between 10th and 11th Avenues. Instead, as ViacomCBS eyed its real estate portfolio for possible sources of cash to fund its streaming ambitions, it settled on selling Black Rock — its granite New York headquarters on 52nd Street — and its CBS Studios Center lot in Los Angeles, dubbed the “Radford Lot.”

ViacomCBS and Altice USA said they reached a new carriage deal that includes the media company’s streaming services as well as its broadcast stations and cable networks.

ViacomCBS said its board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share on both its Class A and Class B Common Stock. The dividend will be payable on Jan. 3, 2022 to stockholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 15, 2021. At the same time, the board also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.4375 per share on its 5.75% Series A Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock. The dividend will be payable on Jan. 3, 2022, to stockholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 15, 2021.

The multi-pronged commitment seeks to apply research, data and quantifiable targets to effect societal change, starting with racial equity and mental health.

The network aims for “symmetry” by having agencies use the same tool for currency as for planning.

Producers Kenya Barris, Rashida Jones and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas will be equity partners in the venture, which Aisha Summers Burke (l) has been tapped to lead.

ViacomCBS’s sell-off of its iconic real estate properties may next include the CBS Studio Center, popularly known as the “CBS Radford lot,” in Studio City, Calif. In a memo to staffers, CBS CEO George Cheeks confirmed that it had hired commercial real estate firm JLL to explore a potential sale of the Radford campus.

When Paw Patrol: The Movie hits theaters and the Paramount+ streaming service today, it will kick off one of ViacomCBS’s most ambitious efforts to take on Disney in the streaming wars. The release of the feature film based on the animated children’s series about a group of rescue dogs who protect their community, will be backed by an “eight figure” marketing blitz, with 1,800 TV ads across channels like Nickelodeon. It involves partnerships with almost 200 companies — from Kellogg’s cereal to Best Western hotels — on tie-ins for toys and other products, many of which will come with a free trial of Paramount+.

Now that all the big media companies have launched at least one streaming service into the overcrowded U.S. market, it’s time to look everywhere else for more customers. Kelly Day, a long-time digital-media veteran, is president of international streaming services for ViacomCBS. She’s charged with the task of debuting ad-supported service Pluto and subscription service Paramount Plus into dozens of countries by the end of 2022.

Comcast and ViacomCBS have announced the next phase of their expected joint streaming venture into international markets in the form of SkyShowtime, which is looking to roll out in 20 European territories in 2022.

ViacomCBS has clinched a sale of the CBS Building known as Black Rock for $760 million to real estate investment firm Harbor Group International. It’s the first sale of the landmark building at 51 West 52^nd Street in midtown Manhattan since it opened in 1964. The media giant put the building on the block in 2019 as it looked to shed noncore assets, but a sale was delayed by the pandemic. As the former owner-occupier, ViacomCBS will lease back its space on a short term basis.

Jennifer Mitchell and Tom Canedo have been named the presidents of CBS Stations, sharing the title with Adrienne Roark, who started on Aug. 2. They all will report to Wendy McMahon, president and co-head of CBS News and Stations.

Shari Redstone is hitting pause on any potential partnership talks between her media company ViacomCBS and NBC owner Comcast in hopes of lining up more suitors. The chairman of ViacomCBS has decided to hold off until next year before re-engaging in talks with Comcast’s Brian Roberts, according to two sources close to the situation.

Elaborating on second quarter advertising growth, CFO Naveen Chopra said ViacomCBS benefitted from “both the return of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament well as timing shifts for this year’s professional golf tournaments.”

ViacomCBS beat Wall Street estimates in the second quarter, with revenue rising 8% to $6.56 billion and earnings per share coming in at 97 cents on an adjusted basis. Analysts had expected earnings of 96 cents and revenue of $6.48 billion. Streaming revenue soared 92%, with advertising revenue more than doubling to $502 million.

ViacomCBS employees won’t be returning to their offices until Oct. 18 “at the very earliest,” CEO Bob Bakish said in a memo to staff Wednesday. He also said the company will continue to require employees currently working at U.S. locations “to be fully vaccinated” and wear masks. He said executives are “assessing if we will make this vaccination requirement mandatory for all employees returning to the office” in the plan’s next phase.

ViacomCBS’s board of directors announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share on both its Class A and Class B common stock. The dividend will be payable on Oct. 1 to stockholders of record at the close of business on Sept. 15. At the same time, the board of directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.4375 per share on its 5.75% Series A mandatory convertible preferred stock. The dividend will be payable on Oct. 1 to stockholders of record at the close of business on Sept. 15.

ViacomCBS and Comcast’s potential partnership has been slowed by concern about the Biden Administration’s pledge to aggressively enforce the nation’s antitrust laws, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions. Both sides are waiting to see how the new administration’s regulators react to the proposed merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit with Discovery, says the source, before resuming discussions about ways the two sides could work together — including any possible business combination — beyond a possible streaming partnership outside the U.S.