ViacomCBS

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts met with ViacomCBS Chairman Shari Redstone in recent weeks to discuss a potential streaming partnership for international markets, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign the media companies see opportunities to join forces. During the meeting, which was held around the end of June in New York, and which also included ViacomCBS CEO Robert Bakish, the executives discussed a variety of possible business partnerships that would allow the companies to enter non-U.S. markets together, the people said.

ViacomCBS and Charter said they have a new multi-year distribution agreement that includes carriage of ViacomCBS’s broadcast stations and cable networks, as well as a license to sell the ViacomCBS streaming services to Charter’s Spectrum customers. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. One of the reasons for merging Viacom with CBS was to give the company greater clout with distributor like Charter.

ViacomCBS has restructured its international reporting structure, bringing its global business under the control of a trio of U.S. execs. Chris McCarthy (l), Brian Robbins (c) and George Cheeks (r) have all been promoted as part of the move. Cheeks, who is president-CEO, CBS Entertainment Group, will expand his role to include responsibility for a global content strategy across ViacomCBS’ free-to-air networks around the world. These include Channel 5 in the U.K., Telefe in Argentina and Network Ten in Australia. McCarthy and Robbins have added global oversight for their brand groups — MTV Entertainment Group and Nickelodeon. There are no specifics but word is that, like with Cheeks, the oversight is content-related and includes programming and marketing.

ViacomCBS is close to done with its upfront deals and is seeing what sources indicate were “historic” price increases. This year’s upfront was expected to be strong, with available rating points down and marketers looking to advertise as the pandemic eased. For ViacomCBS, demand was particularly heavy for its National Football League schedule and other sports. Marketers were also eager to get into CBS primetime programming, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The NIckWatch, a wearable consumer product featuring Nickelodeon characters, was introduced by ViacomCBS Networks International Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Nickwatch will connect kids and parents via voice and text and feature photo filters, sound effects, games and stickers based on NIckelodeon shows and characters. Content will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Analysts threw ice-cold water on a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday suggesting that Comcast may buy ViacomCBS and/or Roku. “From a regulatory standpoint, ViacomCBS is a non-starter with network/station overlaps, even before considering whether network/content production market share would be an issue,” Credit Suisse’s Douglas Mitchelson wrote in a note to investors Thursday morning.

ViacomCBS on Wednesday unveiled its content leadership structure for its global streaming services. The moves include appointing Tanya Giles, currently GM of MTV Entertainment Group, as “a centralized programming head” to oversee content strategy for Paramount+ and Pluto TV globally.

NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS may eventually find themselves on the outside looking in as the subscription streaming video industry continues to grow. That’s according to MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson, who kicked off The StreamTV Show with a forward-looking assessment of which major streamers have the best chance at future success. Assuming that both the Amazon-MGM and Discovery-WarnerMedia deals go through in 2022, he said that the clear winners will be Netflix, Disney, Amazon and Warner Bros. Discovery while AMC Networks will have success, albeit on a more niche level.

ViacomCBS and Comcast can succeed without acquiring other businesses, IAC Chairman Barry Diller says. He described Comcast as being in a “fantastic position” with a cable and broadband business that hedges against NBCUniversal. “I don’t think they have to do anything,” he said of whether Comcast needs to spin off a business or get bigger.

This year’s upfront ad-sales session is shaping up to be one of the fastest in recent memory. But some TV companies are working to slow things down. At a time when advertisers appear willing to capitulate to significant pricing increases, they are still balking at demands from both Discovery and ViacomCBS, according to three media buying executives and other people familiar with the tone of these annual negotiations for commercial inventory between U.S. media companies and Madison Avenue.

Pluto TV, ViacomCBS’s free, ad-supported television service, looks to be ahead of financial projections as it closes in on $1 billion in annual ad revenue. ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish, speaking Monday at an Evercore investor conference, said that, on a run rate basis, Pluto TV is on track to exceed $1 billion in total ad revenue during the fourth quarter.

A new report details ViacomCBS’s use of a labyrinthine tax shelter to sell rights to its shows and films overseas.

Bob Bakish tells annual shareholder meeting “we have made tremendous progress,” adding that the firm was on track to exceed its targets for merger synergies.

ViacomCBS is the latest media company to be spotlighted as a possible takeover target amid the heightened M&A speculation following the WarnerMedia-Discovery tie-up. ViacomCBS shares, which have lost 35% over the past three months, rose 3% in midday trading on Thursday after Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich upgraded ViacomCBS to buy from underperform, citing the potential for an acquisition.

Looking at the current quarter, CFO Naveen Chopra told analysts to expect streaming subscription revenue and streaming advertising revenue to accelerate from the first quarter.

ViacomCBS exceeded Wall Street earnings expectations in the first quarter, paced by the addition of 6 million global streaming subscribers. Revenue came in at $7.4 billion for the period ending March 31, ahead of analysts’ consensus forecast for $7.2 billion. Earnings per share of $1.42 also cleared the bar and rose 75% from the year-earlier quarter.

The new contract extends ViacomCBS’s portfolio rights for linear television currency.

The deal includes the Japan launch of ViacomCBS’s kids streaming channel Nick+, as well as a dedicated Nickelodeon zone for merchandise sales on Rakuten’s flagship e-commerce platform.

CBS News President Susan Zirinsky is nearing a deal to step down after just two years in the role and sign a wide-ranging production partnership with parent company ViacomCBS, according to people familiar with the matter. A search for a successor to Zirinsky has been ongoing for several months but a candidate has yet to be named. It is expected that she will remain as head of CBS News until then, the people said.

ViacomCBS’s international networks division said it agreed to acquire Chilevisión from AT&T’s WarnerMedia. Financial terms were not disclosed. Local reports valued the transaction at between $14 million and $20 million. ViacomCBS Networks International said the acquisition will expand its footprint in Latin America and give it premium Spanish-language content for its Paramount Plus and Pluto TV streaming platforms.

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish saw his pay increase slightly in 2020 to $38.9 million in 2020, according to an SEC filing on Friday. Bakish pulled in $36.6 million in compensation for 2019, which was split between his duties as CEO of Viacom before the merger with CBS toward the end of 2019.

ViacomCBS has taken a stance in opposition to the Georgia voting rights law that restricts voting access, making it the first major entertainment media corporation to do so and part of a group of vocal big businesses that include Delta and Coca-Cola. “We unequivocally believe in the importance of all Americans having an equal right to vote and oppose the recent Georgia voting rights law or any effort that impedes the ability to exercise this vital constitutional right,” reads the statement.

Viacom stock, the hodge-podge of old media assets of CBS and Viacom which includes a TV network, a smattering of cable channels and the Paramount movie studio was always suspect as a YOLO stock candidate. For most of last year it traded in a sleepy $20-$25 range but suddenly this year exploded to just above $101 before flaming out in one the most memorable crashes in recent history as it tumbled nearly 70% in a matter of days.

ViacomCBS stock dropped nearly 9.1% Tuesday, as investors exited positions on news that the media conglomerate will sell up to $3.45 billion in stock as part of funding streaming content. The company’s shares closed at $91.25 apiece, coming a day after ViacomCBS’ announcement of plans to raise $3 billion in a stock offering.

ViacomCBS is looking to beef up its streaming investment by raising $3 billion in stock offerings. ViacomCBS said it intends to use the combined net proceeds from the offerings for general corporate purposes, including investments in streaming. ViacomCBS launched Paramount+, a reconstituted version of CBS All Access, on March 4.

YouTube TV subscribers have a new batch of channels that they can enjoy, with the vMVPD platform announcing the addition of seven ViacomCBS channels to the service. The new channels, announced via YouTube TV’s Twitter, include BET-Her, Dabl, MTV2, MTV Classic, Nick Jr., Nick Toons and Teen Nick.

Everyone is a winner in the streaming wars. Legacy media companies like ViacomCBS and Discovery have been rewarded by investors for their push into streaming, while Disney’s stock is being saved by Disney+’s breakout success. Since the beginning of 2020, both ViacomCBS and Discovery’s stock have skyrocketed by more than 130% each, and Disney and Comcast have also risen by 36% and 27%, respectively, in that same timeframe.

Associated Newspapers, which owns the U.K. Daily Mail tabloid, has written to ViacomCBS demanding the deletion of “offending content” in Oprah Winfrey’s high-profile interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Lawyers for Associated Newspapers took exception with images in a newspaper headline montage they claim have been altered or misrepresented and demand that they be edited out of the TV special.

ViacomCBS leadership has set a tentative timeline for employees to return to the media giant’s numerous offices, though in limited capacity, as coronavirus vaccines continue to rollout across the country and around the world. In a Thursday memo from CEO Bob Bakish, the executive outlined plans to return as early as just after the upcoming July 4 holiday.

Disney and ViacomCBS shares were buoyant in trading Monday thanks to good news that allowed ViacomCBS to buck the general downtrend for the Nasdaq index.

ViacomCBS’s finance chief is tasked with reallocating funds toward the company’s new streaming service Paramount+ — launching Thursday — without starving its much bigger television business.

Its backers hope the ViacomCBS streaming platform will be a smorgasbord of offerings — with live sports and news, reboots of properties like Frasier and Rugrats, original shows like Star Trek: Discovery and the ViacomCBS library — that will entice viewers. But its relatively late entrance to a competitive landscape and a $4 price increase compared to its predecessor, CBS All Access, could make it a challenging sell.

While Wednesday’s big presentation for investors was focused on Paramount+, Chairman Shari Redstone made it clear that ViacomCBS isn’t discounting its broadcast and cable businesses. “We’re about both linear and streaming,” she declared.

ViacomCBS exceeded Wall Street analysts’ expectations for its fourth-quarter results, reporting diluted earnings per share of $1.04 and total revenue of just shy of $6.9 billion. The consensus forecast by analysts was for earnings of $1.01 and revenue of $6.9 billion, up 13% and 3%, respectively, from the same quarter in 2019. Because the merger of Viacom and CBS was completed in December 2019, the financials reflect pro-forma and adjusted results.

ViacomCBS is offering a steep discount of its soon-to-launch Paramount Plus subscription streaming service to current CBS All Access customers willing to pay up front for a full year.