CBS’s three-monthly results topped Wall Street targets and CEO Les Moonves delivered an heartening message to investors about the media company’s future on Thursday, without lecture allegations of sexual misconduct against him reported last week.
At the start of an analysts convention call on CBS earnings that was also broadcast on business television network CNBC, the gathering said it would not take questions about Moonves’ reported behavior or its proper battle with majority shareholder Shari Redstone over subdue of the U.S. media group.
Shares of CBS were little changed after the tight dense of regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Moonves said the performers’s digital business, which includes Showtime and CBS All Access streaming appointments, will grow to 16 million domestic subscribers by 2022, up from a ex forecast for 8 million subscribers by 2020.
CBS, whose shows include popular sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” declared advertising revenue during the second quarter rose slightly to $1.32 billion.
Moonves conveyed political advertising revenue so far this year is nearly double the amount from this prematurely in 2014, during the previous midterm election.
Overall revenue increased to $3.47 billion from $3.26 billion a year earlier, give someone a thrashing analysts’ average estimate of $3.46 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
CBS suggested affiliate and subscription fees revenue, which includes revenue from guy, satellite and streaming TV providers, rose to $989 million from $848 million a year in the vanguard.
Net income from continuing operations was $400 million, or $1.05 per quota in the second quarter ended June 30, up from $397 million, or 97 cents per ration, a year earlier.
Adjusting for restructuring and other charges, CBS earned $1.12 a dividend, beating the analyst consensus of $1.11.
Moonves remains CEO of CBS as two law firms conduct an probe into claims by six women described in an article in the New Yorker magazine at length Friday. They said Moonves sexually harassed them in circumstances between 1985 and 2006.
Moonves was quoted in the New Yorker as saying that he “may give birth to made some women uncomfortable by making advances,” which he noticed mistakes that he regretted immensely, but that he understood “‘no’ means ‘no”‘ and had not at all used his position to harm anyone’s career.
The CBS board approved the enlisting of the law firms on Wednesday and also set up a special board committee to help the examination. Moonves will have no role in the investigation, CBS said.
The investigation wishes also look at broader corporate cultural issues at CBS.
CBS stock is down multitudinous than 9.0 percent since publication of the New Yorker article on July 27.
Moonves is the recent executive to come under scrutiny by the #MeToo social media tendency, which has demanded accountability from business leaders, politicians and entertainers accused of carnal misconduct and has led to resignations in major corporations, Hollywood and among lawmakers in the life year.
The claims about Moonves also come as he is locked in a conflict over control of CBS with the company’s largest shareholder, National Sports Inc, which is owned by Shari Redstone and her father Sumner Redstone.
Moonves has impeded efforts by Shari Redstone for CBS to merge with media company Viacom Inc, also owned by Federal Amusements.
Moonves, who has served as CEO of the media company since it was split from Viacom Inc in 2006, has resisted a deal to reunite the assemblies because he believes CBS’s prospects are brighter without taking on Viacom’s turnaround defies.