CBS CBS Corp

By Tess Stynes and Joe Flint 

CBS Corp. reported that its third-quarter revenue fell 3.3%, which the media company blamed on the timing of television licensing sales and decreases in pay-per-view revenue.

Revenue declined to $3.26 billion from $3.37 billion a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected revenue of $3.27 billion. The company said the decline in overall revenue also included the impact from the nonrenewal of its U.S. Open Tennis contract and one fewer National Football League game in the quarter.

On an earnings conference call, CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves expressed confidence about the advertising market. Advertising on the CBS network was up 1% for the quarter. Excluding the year-ago quarter's additional NFL game and U.S. Open programming, network advertising increased by 8%, CBS said.

The company said its new late-night lineup featuring Stephen Colbert and James Corden, who succeeded David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, respectively, has performed well. Advertising revenue in late-night increased 42% compared with the same period a year ago and both shows are drawing much younger viewers than their predecessors.

"We expect a strong finish in 2015," Mr. Moonves said, adding that the network has launched three new shows it considers successful--the comedy "Life in Pieces" and dramas "Supergirl" and "Limitless."

CBS also talked extensively about its plans for "All Access," its online-only platform that includes a linear feed of the CBS schedule and library content. On Monday, CBS said it would create a new "Star Trek" series to debut in 2017 that would live exclusively on "All Access" in the U.S. and be sold to international TV channels.

"We're setting ourselves up to live long and prosper," Mr. Moonves said.

CBS has yet to disclose the number of people who have signed up for All Access, which costs $5.99 a month. Asked if CBS would consider a commercial free version of the service similar to what Hulu is doing, Mr. Moonves said that has been discussed and he floated the idea of charging $9.99 a month.

Mr. Moonves pushed back on the growing fears on Wall Street that pay TV disconnections are picking up pace. "The dire predictions of cord-cutting are overblown," he said.

Shares of CBS, down 13% this year, were up 3% in after-hours trading.

Over all, for the third quarter, CBS reported a profit of $426 million, or 88 cents a share, down from $1.64 billion, or $3.03 a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of 81 cents.

The year-earlier period included a gain of $1.56 billion related to the sale of CBS's majority stake in CBS Outdoors America Inc., which split off from the media giant in 2014.

In the latest quarter, CBS's affiliate and subscription fee revenue rose 9.2% to $664 million but was offset by a 4.3% decline in advertising revenue and an 8.3% drop in content and licensing revenue.

Cable revenue, which includes Showtime, CBS Sports Network and Smithsonian Networks, fell 16% to $526 million.

Local television division revenue decreased 6.2% to $638 million in large part because 2014 was an election year.

Entertainment revenue--which includes the broadcast network, CBS Television studios and CBS films--improved 1.1% to $1.93 billion.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com and Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 03, 2015 19:50 ET (00:50 GMT)

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