Viacom's View Is All Roses

If 2003 hasn't been everything Viacom VIAB could have hoped for, the coming year is looking much more promising.

That's the message executives offered up on a conference call Thursday morning in the wake of Viacom's third-quarter financial report, which came in broadly in line with expectations. The company's shares held steady around midday as investors digested the latest developments.

On a conference call with analysts, Viacom President Mel Karmazin held expectations in check for the remainder of the year, making several references to "difficult comparisons" with prior year results that benefited from the mid-presidential-term political advertising.

But Karmazin spoke optimistically about prospects for 2004, when the company's advertising sales will get a boost from CBS's Super Bowl broadcast and the cyclical effect of a Summer Olympics year combined with a presidential election campaign.

"2004 will be a breakaway year for us," Karmazin told analysts. "And I hopefully feel that you will share our enthusiasm for the company."

On Thursday morning, Viacom's shares were flat at $38.73.

Hand in Hand

Earlier Thursday, Viacom followed the lead of its crosstown rival in posting a mixed third quarter and reiterating its financial outlook.

The New York media giant said strong cable, video and television results outpaced a weak local advertising business -- which influences the company's TV station and radio station revenue -- in its latest quarter. Viacom's release came just a month after the company shocked Wall Street by warning of slower-than-expected growth in local markets.

For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, earnings rose to $700 million, or 40 cents a share, from $640 million, or 36 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $6.6 billion from $6.3 billion a year earlier. In keeping with the numbers posted yesterday by New York media giant Time Warner TWX, Viacom's results were stronger than expected on the bottom line but a bit light on the top: Wall Street analysts had forecast third-quarter earnings of 38 cents a share on revenue of $6.7 billion.