Streaming Revenue Pushes ViacomCBS Past Wall Street’s Q2 Benchmarks
ViacomCBS reported its earnings for the second quarter of 2021 on Thursday.
Wall Street forecast earnings per share (EPS) of 96 cents on $6.48 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate of media analysts compiled by Yahoo Finance. ViacomCBS reported adjusted diluted EPS of 97 on $6.56 billion in revenue.
The return of sports helped out a bunch. “A Quiet Place Part II” barely did.
ViacomCBS said this morning it had 42 million global streaming subscribers, combining Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access) and Showtime OTT. That’s +6 million.
“In a quarter of strong business performance, including growth in advertising and affiliate, streaming was a standout,” President and CEO Bob Bakish said in a statement accompanying the financials. “We continued to accelerate our global streaming momentum and delivered phenomenal results across our flagship streaming services. For the second consecutive quarter, Paramount+ fueled more than 6 million additions to our global streaming subscription base, which now reaches over 42 million. This growth was driven by the power of the service’s differentiated content strategy and expanding content slate. Looking ahead, we’re excited about our opportunity to build on this momentum, as we scale Paramount+’s content offerings across genres and expand our reach with global audiences.”
Shares in ViacomCBS. closed Wednesday at $38.79 apiece. The stock market reopens a 9:30 a.m. ET.
An hour earlier, at 8:30 a.m. ET, Bakish and other top ViacomCBS executives will host a conference call to discuss the quarter in greater detail.
More to come…