Versant Media Group on Thursday unveiled results for its most recent quarter — its first as a stand-alone company after separating from Comcast’s NBCUniversal and beginning to trade on the Nasdaq earlier this year.
The report revealed continued pressure in the traditional pay TV bundle but highlighted growth in digital platform and licensing businesses.
Versant stock rose roughly 7% in early trading after earlier gaining roughly 11% in the premarket.
Linear distribution revenue for its pay TV networks — which include CNBC, MS NOW and the Golf Channel as well as USA, E!, Syfy and Oxygen — was down roughly 7% during the period to $1.01 billion. The company said that was due to subscriber declines and partially offset by rate increases.
Advertising revenue for the first quarter fell 5% to $368 million, which was considered an improvement from the same period last year when it posted a 12% decline.
Revenue from content licensing, however, rose 113.5% to $121 million, due largely to the licensing of the longtime reality TV series hit “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and other related content to Disney’s Hulu.
Revenue from Versant’s platforms business, which includes Fandango, GolfNow and some of the already launched direct-to-consumer units, was up 9.5% to $192 million.
CEO Mark Lazarus said on Thursday’s earnings call with investors that the company aims to “build scale and expand our audiences” in direct-to-consumer.
“Yes, we hope that comes with a large base of subscribers, and we’ll gauge ourselves as [to] how do revenues look across all of our various forms of distributing content,” he said.
Lazarus added that the company is working to make sure it grows “revenue diversification within each of our verticals.”
More than 80% of Versant’s revenue comes from the pay TV business. However, executives have told Wall Street that it aims to eventually rebalance its revenue mix so that 50% is derived from its digital, platform, subscription, ad-supported and transactional businesses.
Overall revenue for the period ended March 31 was down about 1% compared with the same quarter last year to $1.69 billion. Wall Street analysts polled by LSEG had expected revenue of $1.62 billion.
Net income attributable to Versant decreased 22% to $286 million, or $1.99 per share, for the quarter, which the company said was due to lower revenue, higher public company costs and interest expense following the spinout from Comcast. This was partially offset by lower taxes during the quarter, it said.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 7% from the same period last year to $704 million.
When compared with stand-alone adjusted EBITDA, a metric to more directly compare performance of the pre-spin portfolio companies to current results, adjusted EBITDA was up about 5%, Versant said. That was due to lower entertainment programming expenses and reduced selling, general and administrative costs, which offset revenue declines.
Growth avenues
Versant has consistently touted its strength in sports and news. On Thursday the company highlighted viewership increases for CNBC and MS NOW as well as continued momentum for the Golf Channel and other live sports and events on its networks.
The company has been exploring growth through mergers and acquisitions, and obtaining more sports rights. On Thursday, Lazarus said Versant has been “looking in a variety of areas” when it comes to potential deals.
CFO and COO Anand Kini added during Thursday’s call that while exploring M&A remains a part of Versant’s strategy, the company is also looking to maintain a healthy balance sheet and is focused on organic growth within its businesses.
“Our platforms revenue growth this quarter demonstrates that was really organic growth in GolfNow and Fandango,” Kini said. “So we’re going to look when there’s opportunities that are inorganic, [but] they have a very high threshold even as they fit within those markets and those strategies.”
The company also continued on its earlier pledge of returning capital to its shareholders, mainly due to its light debt load.
The company on Thursday declared a quarterly cash dividend for the second quarter in a row, each time at 37.5 cents per share. The new dividend is payable on July 22 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on July 1.
Versant also announced that it expects to enter into a $100 million accelerated share repurchase agreement, beginning Friday, which it anticipates completing during the second quarter. Versant repurchased nearly 2.7 million shares of Class A common stock during the first quarter, with a remaining authorization of roughly $900 million as of March 31, it said.
Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC.