Viacom reported higher second-quarter income as it cut costs. Net income for the US media giant rose to $376 million (€334.2m), up from $266 million a year ago. Revenues fell 6 per cent to $2.958 billion.

At the company’s media networks unit, adjusted operating income was down 3% to $682 million. Revenues were down 7 per cent to $2.267 billion.

Advertising revenues were down 7 per cent to $1.033 billion. CEO Bob Bakish said ad revenues would grow in the third quarter, marketing the first quarter of ad sales growth in five years for the company. Bakish noted that Viacom has negotiated a new carriage deal with AT&T and that some of its networks were being added to the AT&T Watch package. He also noted that Viacom channels would be included in T-Mobile’s video offering.

“This quarter we executed strongly on our strategic priorities and made significant progress in advancing our evolution. We grew viewership share at our flagship networks, accelerated our Advanced Marketing Solutions and continued our momentum at Paramount Pictures. We also achieved important milestones in expanding our distribution across traditional, digital and mobile platforms, while dramatically improving our audience reach through the integration of Pluto TV,” said Bakish.

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