ViacomCBS Inc. reported a loss in the final quarter of last year as Viacom completed its merger with sister company CBS and prepared to compete with the likes of Netflix Inc. in the increasingly crowded arena of online streaming video.
The Wall Street Journal reports ViacomCBS posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $258 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a profit of $887 million, or $1.44 a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 97 cents a share.
Revenue fell 3% to $6.87 billion from the prior year as content-licensing revenue fell 11% to $1.28 billion. Analysts were looking for revenue of $7.34 billion.
The company also said it is targeting $750 million in cost cuts for the year.
The company’s advertising revenue fell 2% to $3.03 billion, and its publishing and theatrical revenues also declined. Its affiliate revenue rose 1% to $2.13 billion, fueled by growth in reverse compensation, retransmission and subscription-streaming revenue that offset declines in pay TV.
ViacomCBS said it had $1.6 billion in streaming video revenue last year and finished the year with 11 million streaming subscribers, marking the first time that the company has broken out its online video results in detail.
ViacomCBS plans to court additional subscribers with an expanded version of CBS All Access, which will include content from across the company’s cable networks, including Nickelodeon, MTV and VH1. The company’s video-streaming services include CBS All Access, Showtime and BET+.
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