Still, shares fell 3.6 percent to $42 in after hours trade following a hectic session for the overall market. CBS television stations revenues declined 11%; CBS radio revenues were down 5%.
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CEO Les Moonves began a conference call with analysts by thanking Sumner Redstone and Shari Redstone for his recent promotion to executive chairman, then he stressed that CBS will thrive in an unbundled world just as it has in a bundled world.
“We are set for broad-based strength across all our revenue sources”, CBS Chairman and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves told analysts. He said that Redstone had given him “free reign” for many years.
The company said the revenue growth was driven by a 16 percent increase in content licensing and distribution revenues, reflecting higher worldwide television licensing sales.
Advertising revenue ticked up 1% on growth in network advertising.
Local TV stations advertising had unfavorable comparisons, due to strong fourth-quarter 2014 ad results which included higher political advertising revenue.
Content licensing and distribution revenue rose more than 16 percent to cross $1 billion in the fourth quarter, accounting for about 28 percent of total revenue in 2015. Adjusted net earnings from continuing operations rose 8% to $436 million; total operating income fell from $707 million to $357 million, hit by $484 million in impairment charges largely related to a writedown of the value of the company’s radio licenses.
The company is focusing more on its online subscription streaming services such as CBS All Access and is investing in new premium content.
CBS reported a profit of $261 million, or 55 cents a share, down from $413 million, or 79 cents a share, a year earlier.
The media company posted adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share of 92 cents on $3.91 billion in revenue.
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Excluding special items, per-share earnings were 92 cents, matching analysts’ expectations.
