ViacomCBS

Dan Fahy is promoted to SVP, head of emerging business and will “spearhead a revenue growth strategy for all ViacomCBS Networks U.K. streaming platforms.”

Four days after CBS put two of its local television executives on administrative leave for alleged racist and sexist conduct, the ViacomCBS-owned company has instigated an external investigation into the potentially damning matter. “We are committed to creating a company culture that is diverse, equitable and inclusive for all of members of our CBS and ViacomCBS community,” said Entertainment Group boss George Cheeks in an email to CBS Stations staff on Friday.

A Delaware judge has allowed CBS stockholders to sue over the 2019 merger of Viacom and CBS, finding a reasonable claim that former CBS chief Joseph Ianniello “sold” his support for the deal to Shari Redstone in exchange for a $125 million payout.

ViacomCBS and Dish Media said they began delivering addressable advertising impressions during live national broadcast network inventory using technology developed with Adcuratio Media.
A number of campaigns have run across Dish’s footprint in certain markets where CBS owns TV stations. The campaign’s target viewers at the household level via Dish set top boxes.

The multi-year deal covers 13 CBS affiliates serving nearly six million television households.

A year after the merger of Viacom and CBS in December 2019, the combined company is in the process of remaking itself from a media conglomerate with a business primarily based in traditional channels like linear TV and theatrical films into one whose operations are oriented around streaming. What the company will look like on the other side of that shift remains to be seen, but out of economic necessity, ViacomCBS in the future will need to look different than its current incarnation.

The 2019 Viacom-CBS merger will undergo strict legal scrutiny now that a Delaware Chancery Court judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed from shareholders who say they were shortchanged in the transaction because of pressure applied by ViacomCBS controlling shareholder Shari Redstone.

CEO Bob Bakish and his team have started getting credit for acquisitions, and sales of non-core assets, at attractive price tags that have transformed the company beyond the big merger that created it. In early 2021, it will detail how all its assets fit into its streaming strategy.

ViacomCBS’s MTV Entertainment Group (formerly Entertainment & Youth) has named PBS NewsHour and former Nightline producer James F. Blue III as SVP, head of Smithsonian Channel. Blue will also oversee news and factual unscripted content for MTV Entertainment’s portfolio of brands across streaming, linear and digital, dual-reporting to Chris McCarthy, president, MTV Entertainment Group and Nina L. Diaz, president of content and chief creative officer.

ViacomCBS selects AWS as its preferred broadcast cloud provider to power one of the largest digital transformations in the media and entertainment industry.

German media giant Bertelsmann’s purchase of Simon & Schuster would reduce the so-called Big Five of American publishing to four. The deal, expected to close in 2021, requires approval from the US Justice Department. No U.S. publisher in modern times would approach the power of the new company.

ViacomCBS is looking ahead to a post-coronavirus world, one in which approximately 70% of its more-than-20,000 employees will work at least partly from home, according to an internal memo from CEO Bob Bakish.

A person familiar with the situation said some 100 staffers are affected across the combined company. The move is part of a streamlining and cost-cutting push when Viacom and CBS merged last December. The cuts started in January and there have been a few more rounds since, with the latest affecting joint services like legal and finance as well advertising and creative.

The rate of decline for total advertising dropped to only 6% in the third quarter from a 27% drop in the second quarter. This year’s upfront was unlike any other, but CEO Bob Bakish said he is satisfied with the outcome. “We were up low-single-digits on price, and we were very careful with volume, holding back inventory so that we had inventory to sell in scatter. And … the scatter market today is very robust.”

ViacomCBS reported total revenue of $6.12 billion and earnings per share of 91 cents in the third quarter, exceeding Wall Street estimates but reflecting ongoing headwinds from COVID-19. Revenue dipped 9% and earnings fell 17%, though both figures exceeded analysts’ consensus forecast for earnings of 88 cents a share and revenue just shy of $6 billion in the quarter ending Sept. 30. In the TV Entertainment unit, affiliate revenue rose 25% on reverse compensation and retransmission gains, while advertising dipped 1% and content licensing fell 35%.

ViacomCBS today named Tom Ryan, currently CEO of Pluto TV, as president and CEO, ViacomCBS Streaming, unveiling a new leadership structure for its evolving global free and pay streaming services. Marc DeBevoise will step down from his role as chief digital officer, ViacomCBS, and president and CEO, ViacomCBS Digital, serving in an advisory capacity for the remainder of 2020 to support the transition and ongoing transformation of the digital organization.

The agreement includes multiyear deals for NCIS: New Orleans and Hawaii Five-0.

CBS wants to pivot from telling people it’s the nation’s most-watched TV network to making them more aware of the programs it distributes across many different screens. “We want to help people understand our brand means more. It’s not just a linear television network,” says Michael Benson, CBS’s chief marketing officer.

ViacomCBS won’t be offering merit increases to salaried employees this year due to the economic hit of COVID-19, CEO Bob Bakish told staff at a town hall meeting Wednesday. A source at the company also confirmed that Bakish told staffers the company’s offices will not be opening in  January. In a memo update several months ago, he had said offices could be opened in January at the earliest but clarified that today so employees could plan, the person said.

ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) announced a unified distribution outfit called ViacomCBS International Studios Distribution that encompasses all studio sales business including co-productions, pre-sale, formats, tape sales and co-developments. Lauren Marriott (left) has been appointed SVP of sales and business operations and distribution lead for the U.K., while Laura Burrell will serve as VP, international formats.

Amid a year of the entertainment industry — and the nation as a whole — reckoning with the way it approaches issue of racial representation and gender parity, ViacomCBS is kicking off its annual inclusion week with an eye toward tackling those issues head on. This year it will do so as an enlarged company following the merger of Viacom and CBS, and in a newly virtual environment due to the ongoing pandemic.

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish was investigated over an accusation of sexual misconduct. An outside investigation was completed and “did not support the allegation,” the company said.

ViacomCBS Inc. is close to selling CNET Media Group to Red Ventures LLC, according to people familiar with the matter, as the entertainment giant sheds parts of its business to focus on video streaming. Red Ventures, a media and technology company, is expected to pay about $500 million to acquire the network of websites, which includes CNET, GameSpot and ZDNet, the people said.

Bob Bakish, president and CEO of ViacomCBS, says the upfront advertising market is going well, although he offered few details. “On the upfront, things are very, very far along,” said Bakish, speaking at a Bank of America virtual media conference on Wednesday. “We always thought it would take longer and it did.”

ViacomCBS Networks International has struck a three-year deal with the National Football League that will bring live Monday night football to the company’s Channel 5 in the U.K.

Wells Fargo Securities media analyst Steven Cahall raised his outlook on ViacomCBS  Thursday from “Underweight” to “Equal Weight” and increased his 12-month price target on the stock to $30 per share from $19 per share, citing the programmers  aggressive moves in the streaming video space.

In a rich deal, indie studio Warner Bros. TV has inked a syndication deal with ViacomCBS for Big Bang spinoff prequel Young Sheldon. Under the multiple-year deal, the 1990s-set single-camera comedy from Chuck Lorre will join ViacomCBS-owned Nick at Nite’s syndication lineup in November.

The possible sale is the latest as the studio, led by CEO Bob Bakish, looks to unload non-core assets after Viacom and CBS merged.

The recombined firm, which bought a stake in Miramax and aims to offload publisher Simon & Schuster and its New York HQ Black Rock building, is expected to keep pursuing its streaming growth plans.

ViacomCBS has raised the curtains on its long-anticipated global streamer, with plans set for an early 2021 launch in Australia, Latin America and the Nordics. Having teased the prospect of a “broad pay streaming product” back in May, ViacomCBS Networks International has unveiled plans for a premium SVOD service for all audiences, underpinned by major output deals with Showtime and CBS All Access and a “super-sized” selection of content from ViacomCBS brands including CBS, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and some first-run Paramount films.

“The [second] quarter turned out better than we thought early. That was because we did see sequential improvement in each month of the quarter,” said President-CEO Bob Bakish in his conference call with Wall Street analysts Thursday morning.

ViacomCBS absorbed a blow to its advertising business from COVID-19 in the second quarter, beating Wall Street forecasts for earnings but clearing the bar for total revenue.

ViacomCBS is combining  its three big connected digital video offerings into ViacomCBS EyeQ, which the company said will give ad buyers simplified access to large-scale audiences. EyeQ includes video from CBS Interactive, Viacom Video and Pluto TV at a time when advertisers are looking to connected TV to reach viewers with targeted advertising as young consumers are cutting the cord and turning to streaming programming.