Earnings: CBS Q4 Revs Down 3 Percent; Income Down On Investment Loss; $21M From March Madness Online

CBS (NYSE: CBS) has announced Q4 revenue of $3.76 billion, down 3 percent year-over-year from $3.88 billion. Net income fell 18 percent to $273.1 million, from $335 million, however this year’s quarter included significant declines in the value of certain CBS investment. The decrease in the top-line was partly attributable to asset divestitures and lower political spend. Some highlights:

Television: Revenue fell 4 percent to $2.46 billion in the quarter. While overall ad spending fell for the above noted reasons, the decline was offset, in part, due to strength at Showtime and CSTV.

Radio: Factoring out divestitures, same-station revenue fell 7 percent due to an overall weak ad market.

Release | Webcast (8:30 AM ET) | Transcript

Conference call: The first big matter of business CEO Leslie Moonves addressed on the call was the economy: “At CBS, we are not seeing a recession in our day-to-day operations.” Sectors that have been hit the hardest have not been big CBS advertisers, he noted. As for the concluded strike, the company says it’s come out of it unscathed: “Our financial pictures was not effected by the strike in any shape or form.” There will be some changes to business though. This year’s upfronts won’t be as garish as in past years, although they’ll still be held at Carnegie Hall. And the company will attempt to maintain some of the lower cost structure that the strike instigated. Much of the call was spent restating the argument that the network business remains strong, and that “the internet is truly an extension of (the) existing network business.” The thesis is that good TV content will be the backbone of digital success.

Last.fm: In the company’s earnings release, this was the only digital property that got a mention. On the call, the company also touted it as an example of its success in the online space, noting that usage is up 92 percent since it adopted limited full streaming.

NCAA Tournament: CBS is projecting digital revenues form the tournament of $21 million, up from $10 million last year. In 2005, using a pay model, the company generated revenue of $250k. Moonves noted that the cost structure of the operations has been the same throughout.

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