Versant beats revenue estimates on licensing deals, digital platform growth

By Harshita Mary Varghese

May 14 (Reuters) – Versant Media topped Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue on Thursday, as content licensing deals and strong sales at businesses like Fandango helped cushion the impact of pay-TV cord-cutting.

Shares of the New York City-based company jumped 7% in pre-market trading.

The Comcast spinoff, whose portfolio is centered on cable networks, has been expanding the reach of major brands including CNBC and MS NOW to stay competitive as viewers increasingly move to streaming.

For the January-March period, total revenue came in at $1.69 billion compared with estimates of $1.62 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Content licensing and other revenue rose 112.3% to $121 million driven by the licensing of select library titles including “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” to Hulu.

A steady box office slate drew strong ticketing sales at Fandango, driving total Platforms revenue up by about 9.1% to $192 million in the first quarter.

Linear Distribution revenue, the company’s largest segment by sales, dropped 7.3% as subscriber declines continued to weigh on the business.

CNBC, which covers business news, recorded its highest-rated quarter in four years, while politics-focused MS NOW achieved its most-watched quarter since 2024.

“Versant must now show that its digital assets can become meaningful growth engines, not just helpful offsets to cord-cutting and weaker linear advertising,” PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said.

Events such as the Milan Cortina Olympics and World Economic Forum in Davos drove higher engagement, with USA Network delivering its largest Olympics audience ever.

The company also announced a $100 million accelerated share repurchase agreement, which it expects to complete in the second quarter.

Versant also launched a new early-morning program called “Morning Call” for CNBC that includes pre-market analysis and coverage of economic and earnings developments.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)