CBS CBS Corp

By Maria Armental 

CBS Corp.'s streaming-services expansion helped deliver better-than-expected revenue growth in its second quarter.

The New York-based company reported revenue for the quarter rose 9.9% from a year earlier to $3.81 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $3.72 billion.

The company added quarterly profit rose 10% to $440 million, or $1.17 a share. On an adjusted basis, the company reported a profit of $1.16 a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet anticipated $1.12 a share for both profit and adjusted profit.

The company said subscriptions from direct-to-consumer streaming services -- anchored by CBS All Access and Showtime -- helped drive a 13% increase in affiliate and subscription revenue in the quarter.

Without disclosing actual subscription figures for those services, CBS said it remains on track to reach its goal of 25 million combined subscribers by 2022.

Advertising revenue rose 7%, led by the broadcast of the semifinals and championship game of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, the company said.

The entertainment giant reportedly is in on-and-off merger talks with sister company Viacom Inc.

Though no merger agreement has been disclosed, the companies have reached a working agreement on the management team that would lead a combined company in the event of a merger, The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter.

But CBS said in a conference call with analysts that it wouldn't comment "on speculation regarding M&A".

The two companies had merged in 2000, but started trading as two separate companies again in 2006.

When the merger was announced in 1999, CBS then had a market value of about $36 billion, while the old Viacom was valued at $31 billion. As of Thursday's closing, CBS was valued at about $19 billion and Viacom at nearly $13 billion.

Viacom made no reference to any talks with CBS on Thursday, when it reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 08, 2019 17:20 ET (21:20 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.