- Versant reported total revenue of $1.7 billion on earnings of $1.99 per share. Wall Street was expecting revenue of $1.62 billion on earnings of $2.16 per share, per Yahoo Finance.
- Versant sold SportsEngine to PlayMetrics for an undisclosed amount after a strategic review. It also acquired the AI-powered financial insights platform StockStory.
- Shares of the company jumped 11% in pre-market trading following the results
Versant’s profit tumbled 22.1% to $286 million, or $1.99 per share, and revenue declined 1.1% to $1.7 billion in the first quarter as growth in its platforms business was offset by declines in advertising and linear distribution.
Linear distribution revenue fell 7.3% to $1.01 billion, primarily due to subscriber declines that were partially offset by contractual rate increases, while ad revenue dropped 5.2% to $368 million due to ratings declines at its networks.
Meanwhile, platforms revenue was boosted 9.5% to $192 million, driven by higher revenue from Fandango movie ticket purchases, video-on-demand transactions and Fandango1, and higher bookings, payments and subscription revenue at GolfNow. In addition to Fandango and GolfNow, the segment includes Rotten Tomatoes, GolfPass, SportsEngine and CNBC’s subscription based-offerings.
Content licensing and other revenue was also a bright spot, jumping 113.5% to $121 million, which was driven by a large agreement for “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and other titles that were recognized during the quarter.
In addition to lower revenue, profits were weighed down by higher public company costs and interest expense following the separation from Comcast, which was partially offset by lower taxes due to a decrease in pre-tax income.
Total costs and expenses came in at $1.25 billion, compared to $1.21 billion in the year ago period, with programming and production costs falling 5% to $519 million.
Despite the mixed results, Versant shares jumped 11% in pre-market trading on Thursday.
MS Now direct to consumer, Fandango AVOD services on track for 2026 launches
Looking ahead, Versant is aiming for half of its growth to come from pay TV and half to come from its digital, platform, subscription, AVOD and transactional businesses.
The company’s MS Now direct-to-consumer service and ad-supported Fandango at Home offering remain on track to launch in 2026. More than half of Versant’s pay TV subscribers are governed by agreements extending through 2028 and beyond.
Executives told analysts on Thursday that they have not settled on pricing for the MS Now service, while Fandango at Home will be free with advertising. They also expect an increase in selling, general and administrative costs to support the development of its DTC offerings.
“Our goal is to continue to build scale and expand our audiences. We hope that comes with with a large base of subscribers,” CEO Mark Lazarus said. “Where we’ll gauge ourselves is, how do revenues look across all of our various forms of distributing content.”
Versant execs say will be be ‘very disciplined’ around M&A, sports rights
Versant CEO Mark Lazarus said the company would be “very disciplined” around M&A and that they’d be focused on a “very vertical strategy” across the linear landscape and deals that help diversify its revenue streams.
Versant after said it would sell SportsEngine to PlayMetrics for an undisclosed amount following a strategic review of the asset.It also acquired the the AI-powered financial insights platform StockStory in April, which will strengthen CNBC’s ability to provide real-time, data-driven insights to investors.
Lazarus also said that the company would “selectively look” at contracts for sports rights. It’s portfolio includes an 11-year WNBA media rights deal through 2036, a six-year USGA agreement for coverage of the U.S. Women’s Open through 2032, a multi-year deal for League One Volleybally, Premier League, NASCAR, WWE, PGA Tour, Pac-12 football and basketball and A-10 basketball
“I do think there will continue to be opportunity for us to build upon our sports portfolio, being judicious with our capital,” Lazarus said.
During the first quarter, Versant repurchased approximately 2,694,125 shares of Class A common stock, with a remaining authorization of approximately $900 million as of March 31. It will enter into a $100 million accelerated share repurchase agreement, which it expects to complete in the second quarter.
More to come…
