CBS (CBS) Reports Q3 EPS of $0.74

CBS (NYSE: CBS) reported Q3 EPS of $0.74, versus $0.73 reported last year. Revenues of $3.37 billion for the third quarter of 2014 increased 2% from $3.30 billion for the same quarter a year ago.

"CBS continues to succeed on the strength of its tremendous content," said Sumner Redstone, Executive Chairman, CBS Corporation. "Les and his team are optimizing the Company for future growth at every turn, and I have the utmost confidence in their ability to increasingly drive shareholder value in these dynamic times of great opportunity."

"Our third quarter growth reflects the success of our efforts to create and monetize our premium content," said Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. "I am particularly pleased with the CBS Television Network's encouraging start to the fall season, which has reloaded our owned content pipeline in a big way with Madam Secretary, Scorpion, and NCIS: New Orleans, along with new owned hits from Showtime and The CW. Our local businesses had a strong quarter as well, including increasing political spending and higher retransmission consent fees. Also during the quarter, we renegotiated new station affiliate contracts with LIN Media, Tribune Broadcasting, Media General, and Gray Television with more to come later this year, bringing us that much closer toward our stated goal of $2 billion in retransmission consent and reverse compensation revenues by 2020. We are also capitalizing on growing consumer demand by expanding into emerging platforms. This includes the recent launch of CBS All Access, which allows our "super fans" to watch CBS wherever they are. At the same time, we are returning more value to shareholders than ever before, and we continue to have great confidence in our future as a content company in this ever-expanding marketplace."

Free Cash Flow

For the third quarter of 2014, free cash flow was an outflow of $400 million, which included payments of $360 million associated with the Company's third quarter debt refinancing, primarily for early redemption premiums, compared with a cash inflow of $346 million for the same prior-year period. For the first nine months of 2014, free cash flow was $124 million compared with $1.29 billion for the same period in 2013, and operating cash flow from continuing operations was $236 million compared with $1.40 billion last year. Three main factors contributed to the variance: higher payments for sports programming, including the addition of Thursday Night Football and the timing of payments under the new Sunday NFL contract; the benefit to 2013 from CBS's Super Bowl broadcast; and the premiums paid in connection with the Company's third quarter debt refinancing.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on CBS (CBS) click here.

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