Quarterly cable programming results: Fiscal Q2 sales at Viacom

Quarterly cable programming results: Fiscal Q2 sales at Viacom increased 2 percent from a year earlier to $3.3 billion, while profit from continuing operations increased 56 percent to $588 million. Ad sales at Nickelodeon remain strong even though the network’s ratings have decreased dramatically, CEO Philippe Dauman said. “We've seen this level of ratings impact on some other major networks in the past and we've overcome it,” he said. “The Nick issue is complicated. There are ratings measurement issues and there certainly has been some compelling programming on some of our competitors.” But not all of Nickelodeon’s competitors sell advertising, leaving marketers few alternatives for reaching that demographic, he said. Dauman said the drop in ratings isn’t the result of viewing shifting to Netflix. “The time spent on Nickelodeon content on Netflix is approximately 2 percent of the time spent on our Nickelodeon channel,” he said. “Even if you view that as being completely cannibalistic [to ratings], which it is not … it would have a minimal impact here” … Q1 sales at Scripps Networks Interactive gained 11 percent from a year earlier to $535 million, the company said. Profit increased 14 percent to $115 million. Digital revenue, which includes sales at its networks’ websites, gained 16 percent to $22.4 million … Q1 sales at Crown Media Holdings gained 14 percent from a year earlier to $83.7 million, the company said. Profit dropped sharply to $12.3 million from $47.5 million on income tax expenses.