Viacom 3Q Net Income Rises 20 Percent

Viacom Inc. said Friday that its fiscal third-quarter net income rose 20 percent, boosted by higher affiliate fees at its cable TV channels and an increase in advertising revenue.

The New York company, which owns MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures, posted an adjusted profit that fell a penny short of Wall Street expectations, but its revenue came in higher than expected.

Viacom also announced that its board boosted the company's stock buyback program to $20 billion in shares from $10 billion, adding that the company plans to buy back $2 billion in shares under the expanded program over the next several months.

Its shares rose more than 4 percent in premarket trading.

For the quarter ended June 30, Viacom earned $643 million, or $1.31 per share. That's up from $534 million, or $1.01 per share, in the same quarter of 2012.

Excluding discontinued operations and one-time items, Viacom earned an adjusted $1.29 per share for the latest quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $1.30 per share.

Revenue increased 14 percent to $3.69 billion from $3.24 billion. That topped analysts' expectations for $3.57 billion.

Viacom said revenue at its media networks business increased 13 percent to $2.57 billion, boosted by a 26 percent jump in global affiliate revenue that stemmed from both digital distribution agreements and rate increases.

Traditionally, Viacom's pay TV channels generate about two-thirds of its revenue and nearly all of its profits. But an increasing amount of the company's revenue is coming from licensing content to video streaming services.

In early June, the company struck a licensing agreement with Amazon.com Inc., giving it exclusive online rights to key Viacom programming, including episodes of Nickelodeon's "Dora the Explorer," after Viacom couldn't come to terms on a larger, omnibus deal with Netflix Inc.

Excluding digital distribution agreements, which are affected by the timing of available programing, domestic affiliate revenue rose in the "high-single digits," Viacom said.

Domestic advertising revenue increased 6 percent, helped by higher ratings, while worldwide advertising revenue rose 5 percent. Viacom has been struggling with a ratings decline at Nickelodeon, but the company third-quarter results lapped a weak year-ago performance, so the increase in advertising revenue was expected.

Revenue at the company's filmed entertainment business, increased 15 percent to $1.16 billion, as global theatrical revenue jumped 64 percent to $464 million, helped by the releases of the movies "Star Trek Into Darkness," "World War Z" and "Pain and Gain," along with continued strong ticket sales of other movies released in the second quarter.

The jump in film revenue also was largely expected. "Star Trek Into Darkness" has already brought in about $450 million globally, while one of the year-ago quarter's major releases was "The Dictator," which grossed $177 million globally.

But operating income at the business dropped 63 percent to $17 million, pulled down by higher film distribution costs.

Viacom shares rose $3.32, or 4.4 percent, to $78.21 in premarket trading. That would top its 52-week high of $75.09 set July 19 if it were to hold up in regular market trading.

2 Chainz Featuring Cap-1 “Where U Been?”

As “Fed Watching” featuring Pharrell is burning up the radios, 2 Chainz makes another statement with “Where You Been?” The track, which features his longtime collaborator Cap-1, goes hard over the bass-heavy production by Mike Will Made It.

 

click to hear

His sophomore album, B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time arrives September 10 via Def Jam.

2 Chainz "Where U Been" feat. Cap 1

The Turtles Lead Whopping $100 Million Class Action Against SiriusXM

Enjoy an old rock tune on satellite radio lately? A new proposed class action raises the theory that SiriusXM has infringed millions of these older recordings from thousands of song artists. 

Damages are alleged to be at least $100 million, but for a company that last reported quarterly revenues of $940 million, the attorneys representing the plaintiff believe that damage figure to be on the conservative side.

The lead plaintiff in the case is Flo & Eddie of The Turtles, the iconic band whose hits include "Happy Together," "It Ain't Me Babe" and "She'd Rather Be With Me."

The band has a history of bringing big cases, but the reason why this lawsuit filed in L.A. Superior Court commands notice comes down to the magical number of 1972.

February 15, 1972 is the exact moment in which sound recordings began falling under federal copyright protection. For recorded music created before then, the situation is a bit more murky. The question this lawsuit addresses is what laws cover those recordings?

Every day, SiriusXM transmits thousands of pre-1972 recordings and does so likely with the confidence that §114 of the Copyright Act gives them this authority. That statute carves out limitations on exclusive rights and also sets up the way that owners of recordings get compensated. Currently, the Copyright Royalty Board is the entity that sets statutory royalty rates for satellite radio, and SoundExchange is the entity that collects the royalties to pass along.

But it is the contention of Flo & Eddie, representing themselves and others similarly situated, that federal law can't be relied upon when dealing with pre-72 music on satellite radio. Here's the complaint filed on Thursday.

Among the cases that could support this theory is Goldstein v. California, a 1972 U.S. Supreme Case dealing with a piracy dispute that gave deference to state laws. The ruling held, "Until and unless Congress takes further action with respect to recordings fixed prior to February 15, 1972, the California statute may be enforced against acts of piracy such as those which occurred in the present case."

In the present action, the plaintiffs assert misappropriation under California law as well as unfair competition and conversion. Those claims were recently tested in favor of record label plaintiffs in a California case against BlueBeat, a website that attempted to use §114 for among other things, to sell 25 cent songs from The Beatles. A judge found BlueBeat liable for misappropriation of pre-72 recordings.

If there is another reason why Sirius might be concerned that state laws aren't preempted by federal statutes that confer them distribution rights, a case decided earlier this year by a New York appeals court might give the satellite giant some pause. There, appeals judges held that music streaming site Grooveshark couldn't take advantage of DMCA safe harbors – another federal law – to defend against charges of pirating pre-72 sound recordings. A different jurisdiction, and dealing with digital rather than satellite distribution, but in the wake of that ruling, many legal commentators warned that all hell could break loose when determining liability on older recordings.

Now, The Turtles are stepping up to give Sirius a major challenge.
This isn't the first legal fight for the band.

In 1971, they sued their record label, White Whale, for accounting irregularities, and wound up recovering rights to their original masters. Years later, they brought one of the first "sampling" lawsuits against De La Soul. They've also sued record pirates and brought claims against advertisers for using without authorization their voices in commercials. They are now being represented by Henry Gradstein and other attorneys at Gradstein & Marzano.

Besides hundreds of millions of dollars, the plaintiffs are demanding an injunction against the defendant distributing pre-72 recordings. The lawsuit could conceivably stop a lot of classic rock and jazz being played on SiriusXM.

We've reached out to Sirius and will update with any comment it has.

Drake ~ All Me feat. 2 Chainz & Big Sean 

 

http://soundcloud.com/octobersveryown/drake-all-me-feat-2-chainz-big

Once again, Drake hits us with another late night track presumably off his forthcoming album, Nothing Was The Same. “All Me” features 2 Chainz and Big Sean. 

http://soundcloud.com/octobersveryown/drake-all-me-feat-2-chainz-big

Waka Flocka Flame’s Mom Deb Antney Sits Down With The Breakfast Club

Earlier today Waka FLocka Flame’s mother Deb Antney stopped by New York’s Power 105.1 and chopped it up with The Breakfast Club, providing a look behind the scenes of some of rap’s most complicated relationships. 

 

Antney started off talking about her beginnings in hip-hop, saying that her career in management started when she gave birth to her first son back in 1981. Throughout the interview, she opened up about her relationships with Nicki Minaj (“That’s the daughter I never had”), French Montanna (“Frenchie needs media training”) and her complicated history with Gucci Mane (“Everybody got issues”). Even though Waka Flocka and Gucci Mane have been at odds with each other lately, Antey sounded hopeful about the future. “Anything can be fixed,” she said. “It’s just a matter if it stays in place.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRJPMDp_Exo

The Mizay entertainment CEO also discussed why she laughed when Waka first played his music for her, her neglect of OJ da Juiceman and her edgy relationship with New York. “This is my city,” she said. “I popped off two of the biggest artists here in this city and this city turned on me. This was the city I was trying to put back on and they turned on me.” Listen to the whole interview above.

Should Sony Entertainment and Universal Music Leave Their Parent Companies?

Over the last several months, financial propositions have been made to cleave Sony Entertainment and Universal Music Group -- the world's two largest music companies  – away from their parent companies. If these proposals were ever to come to fruition, they would radically change the face of the music industry as we know it and also present a number of interesting possibilities. 

David Loeb of Third Point, a hedge fund which has 6.9% invested in Sony Corp, in May first called on the Japanese conglomerate to put its music and film holdings up for an Initial Public Stock Offering which could possibly raise as much as $2 billion. Loeb argued that the move would strengthen the company with the "transparency that comes with public reporting, an active media analyst community evaluating financial performance regularly and an expert board with strongly aligned incentives.”  Today (Aug. 1), news brokeposting its first profitable quarter in two years due in part to a weaker Yen -- down. The market, it seems, favors the idea of an independent Sony Entertainment.  that the Sony board plans not to spin-off its entertainment holdings, which sent shares of Sony down 3% -- despite

Two weeks ago, news broke that Japanese Telecom SoftBank (which recently merged with Sprint) had made an $8.5 billion dollar offer to buy Universal Music Group from Vivendi, a French conglomerate that, much like Sony, has had its share of financial challenges. A report in the Financial Times noted that Vivendi has been under pressure to restructure its holdings as its stock shares had fallen 13 percent since early May. And much like Sony, Vivendi has an activist investor in Vincent Bollore who is similarly pressing Vivendi to dispose of its holdings, which include Activision Blizzard and French TV group Canal Plus. Vivendi, again like Sony, has insisted on keeping its entertainment holdings and instead sold-off its 53% in Maroc Telecom as it tries to focus more on its media and entertainment holdings.

Both scenarios point to the desirability of music content creation companies in 2013 and their intrinsic value. In a follow-up piece on SoftBank’s $8.5 Billion proposal, Billboard’s Ed Christman concluded that the “$8.5 billion pricing SoftBank offered, gave UMG about a 9X multiple, which is a significant improvement over the 7.6 multiple that Citigroup realized through the sale of EMI.” Meaning that the value of record companies are increasing. And with Telecoms like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint increasingly looking to buy music platforms to entice consumers, major record companies may never have been a more desirable asset.

Big Sean Recruits Nicki Minaj, Miguel, And Nas For ‘Hall Of Fame’

For his second go round, Big Sean is trying to convey one thing and it’s all about representing who he is as an artist.

 Also nabbing many exclusive features for the project, the G.O.O.D Music rapper lets it be known that along with giving the world a closer glimpse of himself, on this album fans can be certain about expecting exclusive appearances.

Joining with Nicki Minaj, Miguel, Nas, Young Jeezy, Kid Cudi, Jhene Aiko, and Juicy J, there’s no doubt that B.I.G Sean put his heart and soul into this project. Succeeding 2011′s Finally Famous the rapper presents fans with a combination of tracks all true to his character, a niche he believes is certain to oscillate an even larger audience.

On “M.I.L.F”, Sean enrolls Nicki Minaj and Juicy J. A record reminiscent of “Dance (A$$)”, the trio recreates the fun vibe of the tune solidifying another club banger. Linking with Miguel on a track called “Ashley”, the MC spoons to an ex-girlfriend rapping, “And I wouldn’t trade it for the world, world, world/ And I’m just so fucking lucky you’re my girl, girl, girl/ And I wouldn’t trade it for anything, no, no, not anything/ And you, can’t nobody do it like you.” Along with the lovey-dovey cut, Seans put on for his hometown of Detroit partnering with Jeezy and Doughboyz Cashout. Nas and Kid Cudi appear on “First Chain”, where all three rappers reflect on the course of their careers Big Sean spitting “I be stuntin’/ Stuntin’ like I got my first chain… B.I.G. was the first one that had it/ Then I saw Nas’ chain, man, that was ‘Illmatic’/ Then, I saw Kanye’s hanging from his gold necklace/ Then ‘Ye gave me mine, I’ll show you my work ethic”.