CBS Beats 3Q Earnings Forecasts With Retransmission Consent And Digital Dough

CBS also announced that it’s increasing its share repurchasing program by $1.5B — ithas already spent $850M from its previous $1.5B authorization. As for 3Q earnings, CBS says it had net income of $338M, up 6.6% vs last year’s 3Q, on revenues of $3.37B, up 2%. Earnings at 50 cents a share beat the 46 cents that analysts expected, although they figured that revenues would come in at $3.43B. The company says that revenues for the Entertainment unit, which includes the CBS network and CBS Films, was up 1% to $1.63B. It cites challenges from “the timing of domestic syndication sales” as a challenge while it benefited from new cash from pay TV retransmission consent deals and digital streaming agreements with companies including Netflix. Cable networks, which includes Showtime, were up 14% to $420M, partly due to rate increases. The Simon & Schuster publishing unit was up 1% to $220M, helped by sales of Jaycee Dugard’s A Stolen Life and Dick Cheney’s In My Time. But the company’s local TV and radio stations were down 3% to $656M without last year’s political ads. Outdoor ad sales were up 4% to $477M helped by changes in foreign exchange rates. CBS chief Les Moonves says he is “confident that we will close out 2011 strongly, and look forward to a terrific 2012 in which we will increasingly benefit from online video, retransmission consent, reverse compensation from affiliates, international and local opportunities as well as political advertising that promises to be very robust.”