Viacom Plans New Projects for Nickelodeon

By AMY CHOZICK

Viacom said Friday that it would develop more than a dozen new television series and movies for its struggling Nickelodeon channel. The announcement came minutes after the company said its profit fell 7 percent in the most recent quarter, driven by a decline in advertising revenue and a slower-than-usual quarter for its Paramount movie studio.

The media company, which owns MTV, Comedy Central and BET, among other cable channels, said its profit in the third quarter, which ended June 30, was $534 million compared with $574 million a year earlier. Overall revenue at the company fell 14 percent to $3.2 billion, while revenue for the media networks fell 5 percent to $2.27 billion.

Ratings softness mostly at Nickelodeon led to a 7 percent drop in domestic advertising revenue. On a conference call with analysts, Philippe Dauman, chief executive of Viacom, assured investors that the children's cable channel would be infused wit h a fresh lineup of programming. “We are aggressively investing in our brands to create new hits,” Mr. Dauman said.

The earnings report came weeks after Viacom settled a messy carriage dispute with DirecTV that led the satellite provider to drop Viacom's channels, angering subscribers. The publicly fought disagreement threatened a further dilution of Nickelodeon's audience - if children became attached to the Disney Channel, for instance, while Nickelodeon was dark. DirecTV reported its first drop in net subscribers on Thursday.

Viacom's filmed entertainment revenue fell 29 percent to $1.01 billion. Worldwide box office revenue fell 52 percent to $283 million. The company said the weakness was largely attributed to Paramount's release of three movies in the most recent quarter, compared with four films, including hits like “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Super 8,” in the third quarter of 2011.

Despite the tough quarter, Mr. Dauman said, †œLooking forward, we will continue to operate efficiently to maintain our competitive and creative edge, and over time, return significant value to shareholders.”