Viacom boss 'optimistic' but tightening purse strings

Phillipe Dauman

• Increase image
• View all images

MIPCOM: Viacom chief executive Philippe Dauman has said he is "optimistic" that the media will perform well in the economic downturn, despite downgrading expectations of the media giant's performance.

Speaking exclusively to Broadcast, he said that Viacom is relatively sheltered from the economic storm because ad-funding only accounts for 30% of its revenues.

"Clearly the last few weeks have been very wresting for world economics, particularly the financial markets. To what extent will the media business be negatively impacted by this? It would be in the area of ad sales which is part of our business but only part of it. It's a minority part of the business," he said.

He also predicted that the entertainment may even get a boost because of the downturn: "If they can't go on vacation they will still want to go to the movie theatre or buy a DVD or watch TV at home. In the 2001/2002 slowdown you had a double digit increase in DVD sales."

Dauman pledged that Viacom will continue to invest in new content and new platforms – including new channels. It is poised to launch its black channel BT in South Africa and is in discussion about rolling out the male-skewing US channel Spike TV in other territories around the world, possibly including the UK.

However, Vicaom will also have to tighten its belt, Dauman said.

"We've [already] been judicious with new hires. We, as other companies, will operate with even greater efficiency."

In addition, it is looking at acquiring more UK programmes for US and other foreign networks to help avoid repeats without having to dramatically increase origination costs.

"Increasingly we're coordinating globally. We can't have all originations - our channels run 24/7 – so there is definitely some flow back potential [from the UK]," he said – citing MTV's Totally Jodie March show as a "notional" example.