CBS Posts Record Q1 Revenues

Leslie Moonves, chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation, touted the company’s ability to monetize content “now and in the future” as it posted revenues of $3.8 billion in the first quarter, a 13-percent gain.

The company recorded a net profit of $511 million in the period. Advertising revenues grew by 8 percent to $1.7 billion. Content licensing and distribution brought in $995 million, an 18-percent increase, boosted by international licensing of new series as well as the start of renewal periods for licenses of library fare. Affiliate and subscription fees generated $979 million, a 16-percent gain, boosted by 25-percent higher retransmission revenues and fees from CBS Television Network-affiliated stations, plus gains from its digital services.

By business segment, entertainment—encompassing the network, TV studios, CBS Studios International, Network Ten and other assets—generated the bulk of the revenues, at $2.72 billion. The cable networks (including Showtime and Smithsonian) reported revenues of $609 million, a 12-percent increase. Publishing revenues were down slightly to $160 million.

“CBS’s phenomenal first-quarter results once again affirm that we have the right strategy to successfully monetize our premium content now and in the future,” said Moonves. “We achieved these record results thanks to the many ways we are delivering our must-have content, including our direct-to-consumer services—CBS All Access and Showtime OTT—which continue to grow rapidly and are now contributing meaningful dollars to our bottom line while attracting younger viewers. We are just beginning to reap the benefits from our position as an industry leader in delivering content over-the-top while others are just entering this business. Beyond direct-to-consumer, our company-wide growth in paying subscribers is an extremely important and unique part of our success. Specifically, when you combine our CBS and Showtime subs across traditional MVPDs, virtual MVPDs (a.k.a. “skinny bundles”) and direct-to-consumer services, CBS Corporation’s subscribers are not only growing, but the growth is also accelerating. And the average rate per sub is increasing strongly as well. Looking ahead, we are confident that the demand for our programming will only increase when we unveil our new prime-time lineup for the CBS Television Network later this month. In addition, we have a very successful slate of new and returning series at Showtime that continues to drive its rates and subscribers, and we have the midterm elections this fall. All of this is leading to another record year for the CBS Corporation in 2018, and with [these] terrific results, we are even more confident in the very strong full-year growth outlook that we laid out three months ago.”