Viacom facing soft ad sales

July 29, 2008 Viacom Inc. has been hit by an "increasingly challenging" economy that hurt its ad sales in the second quarter more than feared, president and CEO Philippe Dauman said, adding that scatter market sales remain soft in the current third quarter. Asked about the likely savings of a possible loss of DreamWorks, Dauman in a conference call predicted "significant" savings, including in such areas as staff, marketing, distribution and development. In an update to the unit's adults upfront sales, Dauman reported double-digit volume increases and high single-digit price increases.

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