Revenues Up at CBS Corporation

CBS Corporation’s fourth quarter revenues increase by 3 percent to $4 billion, while full-year revenues were up 6 percent to $14.5 billion.

In Q4, the company saw ad revenues rise by 7 percent to $1.9 billion, despite the lack of Thursday Night Football, with record political advertising sales from the 2018 midterm elections. Affiliate and subscription fee revenues, driven by its direct-to-consumer services, retrans fees and revenues from virtual MVPDs, were up by 11 percent to $1 billion. Content licensing and distribution revenues, however, decreased by 11 percent to $1.1 billion. Net profit for the period was $561 million.

“CBS delivered our best-ever quarterly and full year results as we continue to position our company for even stronger long-term growth,” said Joe Ianniello, president and acting CEO. “Our strategy of creating more of the premium content that audiences want and making it available across new and traditional platforms continues to pay off, driving quarterly increases in subscribers at CBS and Showtime, both consecutively and year over year. In addition, we are generating significant momentum with our direct-to-consumer platforms, which provide a great return on investment and represent one of our most powerful long-term growth drivers. In fact, we have now reached 8 million direct-to-consumer subscribers between CBS All Access and Showtime, nearly two years ahead of our original schedule. As a result, we have set a new target of 25 million domestic subs combined from both of these direct-to-consumer services by 2022. All of this success is fueled by the must-have programming we have from across our key established content brands. Once again, the CBS Television Network is number one in viewers, and thanks to the strength of our entertainment lineup and marquee sporting events, we are confident we will end the season as the most-watched network for the 11th consecutive year. At Showtime, we are growing our audience with our year-round lineup of buzzworthy original series, from Shameless and Ray Donovan to Billions and The Chi, as well as our premier boxing events. So we are set for another great year in 2019 as we continue to distinguish ourselves as a global multiplatform premium content company and steer our strategic focus toward scaling our direct-to-consumer subscribers.”