CBS TV Stations’ 1Q Rev Dips 5% To $626M

CBS Corp.’s Local Broadcasting (which includes TV and radio stations) revenues for the first quarter of 2014 decreased 2% to $626 million from $638 million for the same prior-year period.

The drop was due, in part, to comparisons that included revenue from CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 (this year’s game was on Fox), as well as two fewer NCAA Tournament games on CBS during the first quarter of 2014 versus the same prior-year period.

The decline was partially offset by growth in retransmission revenues.

CBS Television Stations revenues decreased 5% as the aforementioned noncomparable factors lowered the revenue comparison by 9 percentage points. Meanwhile, CBS Radio revenues increased 2%.

“CBS remains focused on its core strategy — creating and distributing the best content, and monetizing it across multiple platforms,” said Sumner Redstone, executive chairman, CBS Corp. “This winning business model is generating healthy profits today, and I’m confident it will continue to do so well into the future. I’m more excited than ever about the growth prospects before us and about all that Leslie and his team are achieving quarter after quarter.”

Leslie Moonves, CBS president-CEO, said: “I’m very pleased to be reporting record first quarter profits, driven once again by our fast-growing, higher-margin revenue streams. Thanks to the strength of our base business, as well as new opportunities to monetize our content, our momentum continues to build. And we are confident we are still in the early innings of our terrific growth story.

“Next week, we will launch a whole new set of content franchises when we unveil our fall schedule to advertisers. Plus, we have several exciting additions to our overall programming lineup with an expanded new schedule this summer and Thursday Night Football this fall.

“Looking ahead, with even stronger programming to sell to advertisers, political spending heating up later this year, and new deals coming down the pike in retransmission consent and reverse compensation, we see the back half of 2014 even stronger than the first—and we are positioned for another record year,” Moonves concluded.

Entertainment revenues for the first quarter of 2014 decreased 9% to $2.30 billion from $2.54 billion in 2013 when Super Bowl XLVII was broadcast on the CBS Television Network. The revenue comparison was also negatively affected by two fewer NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship games on CBS during the first quarter of 2014 versus the same prior-year period. Taken together, these two noncomparable items lowered the revenue comparison by 11 percentage points. Content licensing and distribution revenues increased 6%, driven by growth from the international licensing of television programming.

Cable Networks revenues for the first quarter of 2014 increased 12% to $537 million from $478 million for the same prior-year period. This growth was driven by higher revenues from the licensing of Showtime original series as well as higher affiliate revenues, reflecting increases in rates and subscriptions at Showtime, CBS Sports Network, and Smithsonian Networks.

For the company as a whole, revenues of $3.86 billion for the first quarter of 2014 were down 4.5% compared with $4.04 billion in the same prior-year period, which included more than $280 million from the CBS Television Network’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII. Content licensing and distribution revenues grew 6%, driven by higher international licensing of television programming. Affiliate and subscription fee revenues rose 9%, led by higher cable affiliate fees, retransmission revenues, and fees from CBS Television Network-affiliated television stations.

Net earnings from continuing operations were $468 million for the first quarter of 2014, or $.78 per diluted share, compared with $463 million, or $.73 per diluted share, for the same prior-year period.

Read the company’s report here.