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Viacom Press Release:
Viacom Reports Double-Digit Earnings And EPS Growth For Fourth Quarter 2013
- Quarterly Revenues Up 9%; Adjusted Net Earnings Up 18%; Adjusted Diluted EPS Increased 28%
- Media Networks Quarterly Revenues Increased 7%; Advertising Revenues Up 10%; Adjusted Operating Income Increased 11% to $1.04 Billion
- Filmed Entertainment Quarterly Revenues Up 11%; Adjusted Operating Income Grew 49%
- $5.4 Billion Returned to Shareholders Through Share Repurchases and Dividends in Fiscal 2013
NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA) today reported strong results for the fiscal 2013 fourth quarter and full year ended September 30, 2013.
Fourth quarter revenues increased 9% to $3.65 billion, reflecting higher revenues in both the Media Networks and Filmed Entertainment segments. Adjusted operating income rose 16% in the quarter to $1.21 billion, with strong growth across business units. Adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom increased 18% to $739 million, and adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were up 28% to $1.55 per diluted share.
Revenues for the full fiscal year were $13.79 billion, down 1% from the previous year, as an increase in Media Networks advertising revenues and affiliate fees was more than offset by decreased Filmed Entertainment revenues. Adjusted operating income grew 1% to $3.94 billion, reflecting an increase in Media Networks operating income and a decrease in Filmed Entertainment. Full-year adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom rose 2% to $2.32 billion and full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 11% to $4.68 per diluted share.
Sumner M. Redstone, Executive Chairman of Viacom, said, "Viacom's outstanding performance proved once again the broad global demand for our valuable content. Looking forward, our world-class brands are perfectly positioned to build on this performance and achieve even greater success."
Philippe Dauman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom, said, "Viacom's commitment to creative and operational excellence, and our continued investment in content, delivered an outstanding quarter and strong fiscal year. Our Media Networks had strong growth in both advertising and affiliate revenues as ratings improved across our brands. We remain at the forefront of creating new and groundbreaking experiences that seamlessly translate across multiple screens and drive deep engagement with our hit programming. In Filmed Entertainment, the success of World War Z and strong performance of the Star Trek and GI Joe franchises in the home entertainment market drove solid returns in the quarter, and we are very optimistic about Paramount's ambitious pipeline of branded and franchise films.
"Our strong cash flow and balance sheet enhance our ability to deliver significant value directly to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. In fiscal 2013, Viacom returned $5.4 billion to shareholders, including $2.7 billion in share repurchases in the fourth quarter."
Quarterly revenues increased 9% over the prior year to $3.65 billion. Media Networks revenues grew 7% to $2.46 billion, principally reflecting substantial growth in domestic advertising revenues and affiliate fees. Domestic and worldwide advertising revenues each increased 10%. Domestic and worldwide affiliate revenues each increased 6%, driven primarily by rate increases. Excluding the impact of digital distribution arrangements, which are affected by the timing of available programming, the domestic affiliate revenue growth rate was in the high single digits. Filmed Entertainment revenues grew 11% to $1.21 billion, due to growth in home entertainment, ancillary and theatrical revenues. Theatrical revenues increased 31% due to stronger carryover revenues, primarily driven by the release of World War Z in the prior quarter. Home entertainment revenues rose 24%, reflecting a strong mix of titles and one additional release in the current year quarter. Ancillary revenues increased 54% driven by fees associated with Marvel distribution rights sales and significant growth in the proportion of digital distribution revenues for key home entertainment releases in the quarter.
Full-year revenues were $13.79 billion, a 1% decline from the prior fiscal year. Media Networks revenues rose 5% to $9.66 billion, resulting from a 9% increase in affiliate fees to $4.25 billion and a 2% gain in advertising revenues to $4.86 billion. Domestic affiliate revenues increased 10% and domestic advertising revenues grew 3%, as positive ratings trends and strong marketplace demand in the second half of the year drove an increase in the volume of commercial units. Filmed Entertainment revenues decreased $538 million, principally reflecting the number and mix of films in release across the various distribution windows. The decline was partially offset by higher ancillary revenues.
Quarterly adjusted operating income rose 16% to $1.21 billion, resulting from growth at both Media Networks and Filmed Entertainment. Media Networks adjusted operating income increased 11%, reflecting higher revenues partially offset by increased programming investment. Filmed Entertainment adjusted operating income increased 49% to $291 million due to higher revenues and lower overhead expense. Corporate expenses increased $32 million due to deferred compensation costs reflecting the stock price increase, as well as higher incentive compensation costs.
Full-year adjusted operating income grew 1%, to $3.94 billion. Media Networks adjusted operating income increased $207 million, due to higher revenues, partially offset by the company's continuing investment in original content. Filmed Entertainment adjusted operating income decreased $91 million, reflecting lower contributions from prior period and catalog releases, partially offset by increased ancillary revenues.
Quarterly adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom rose 18% to $739 million. The increase reflects growth in operating income and a lower overall tax rate. Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for the quarter were $1.55, a 28% increase from $1.21 in the prior year's comparable quarter.
Full-year adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom increased 2% to $2.32 billion, primarily due to the overall growth in operating income and a lower overall tax rate. Full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 11% to $4.68.
Stock Repurchase Program
For the quarter ended September 30, 2013, Viacom repurchased 33.7 million shares under its stock repurchase program, for an aggregate purchase price of $2.7 billion. As of September 30, 2013, Viacom had 449 million shares of common stock outstanding. As of November 13, 2013, Viacom had $9.63 billion remaining in its $20 billion stock repurchase program.
Debt
At September 30, 2013, total debt outstanding, including capital lease obligations, was $11.89 billion, compared with $8.15 billion at September 30, 2012. The Company's cash balances were $2.4 billion at September 30, 2013, an increase from $0.8 billion at September 30, 2012.
About Viacom
Viacom is home to premier global media brands that create compelling television programs, motion pictures, short-form video, apps, games, consumer products, social media and other entertainment content for audiences in more than 160 countries and territories. Viacom's media networks, including MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, BET, CENTRIC, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., TeenNick, Nicktoons, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, TV Land, SPIKE, Tr3s, Paramount Channel and VIVA, reach approximately 700 million households worldwide. Paramount Pictures, America's oldest film studio, is a major global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment.
For more information about Viacom and its businesses, visit www.viacom.com. Viacom may also use social media channels to communicate with its investors and the public about the company, its brands and other matters, and those communications could be deemed to be material information. Investors and others are encouraged to review posts on Viacom's company blog (blog.viacom.com), Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/viacom) and Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/viacom).
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations concerning future results, objectives, plans and goals, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and which may cause future results, performance or achievements to differ. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others: the public acceptance of our programs, motion pictures and other entertainment content on the various platforms on which they are distributed; technological developments and their effect in our markets and on consumer behavior; competition for audiences and distribution; the impact of piracy; economic conditions generally, and in advertising and retail markets in particular; fluctuations in our results due to the timing, mix and availability of our motion pictures and other programming; changes in the Federal communications laws and regulations; other domestic and global economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors affecting our businesses generally; and other factors described in our news releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to our 2013 Annual Report on Form 10-K and reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made only as of the date of this document, and we do not have any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. If applicable, reconciliations for any non-GAAP financial information contained in this news release are included in this news release or available on our website at http://www.viacom.com.
[...]
SOURCE Viacom Inc.
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Also, below is Viacom's Q4 2013 Results Earnings Call Transcript, in which Viacom Management discusses the company's Q3 2013 Results, from Seeking Alpha:
Viacom Management Discusses Q4 2013 Results - Earnings Call TranscriptYou can read Viacom's Q4 2013 Results Earnings Call Transcript in full here on the official Seeking Alpha website.
James Bombassei - Senior Vice President of Investor Relations
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join us for our earnings call for the quarter and fiscal year ended September 30. Joining me for today's discussion are Sumner Redstone, our Chairman; Philippe Dauman, our President and CEO; Tom Dooley, our Chief Operating Officer; and Wade Davis, our CFO.
Please note that in addition to our press release, we have slides and trending schedules containing supplemental information available on our website. I want to refer you to Page #2 on the web presentation and remind you that certain statements made on this call are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in more detail in our filings with the SEC. Today's remarks will focus on adjusted results. Reconciliations for non-GAAP financial information discussed on this call can be found in our earnings release or on our website.
Now I'll turn the call over to Sumner.
Sumner M. Redstone - Founder and Executive Chairman
Thank you, Jim. Good morning, and welcome to Viacom's fourth quarter conference call. Once again, we have reported outstanding results, with growth across the board in the quarter. Making great content is the heart of our business, and today, we are producing more creative and exciting entertainment than ever before in our history. Our creative leadership team, led by Philippe, is ensuring that our creative success results in solid returns and growing value for our shareholders.
Now I'd like to turn the call over to my good friend, one of the wisest men I have ever met, Philippe.
Philippe P. Dauman - Chief Executive Officer, President and Not Independent Director
Thank you so much, Sumner. And good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Let me start by briefly covering the company's financial performance for the quarter and the full fiscal year, and then Tom and Wade will go into greater detail.
In the fourth quarter, revenues increased 9% to $3.65 billion, and adjusted operating income rose 16% to set an all-time quarterly record of $1.21 billion. Adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom increased 18% to $739 million. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were up 28% to $1.55, also an all-time record quarterly result.
For fiscal 2013, revenues were $13.79 billion, down 1% from the previous year, and adjusted operating income rose 1% to $3.94 billion. Full year adjusted net earnings from continuing operations rose 2% to $2.32 billion, while full year adjusted diluted earnings per share rose 11% to $4.68.
Our cash flow and balance sheet are strong, and we remain steadfastly committed to our dual objectives, investing in everything we need to grow our content business and returning capital to our shareholders. In fiscal 2013, we returned $5.4 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. That includes the repurchase of nearly 70 million shares or approximately 14% of our shares outstanding at the beginning of the fiscal year and more than $550 million in dividends paid.
On our last earnings call, we announced an increase in the size of our share repurchase program from $10 billion to $20 billion. As we noted at the time, we augmented the pace of our buyback with the purchase of an additional $2 billion of our stock completed in the September quarter, which resulted in an aggregate repurchase of $2.7 billion in stock for the quarter. In the current quarter, we plan to return to a normalized buyback pace and purchase $850 million in stock. For the current fiscal year, we plan to purchase at least $3 billion of our stock.
Our results for the quarter are the capstone to a remarkable fiscal 2013 for Viacom with steady improvement as the year progressed. As always, Viacom's unwavering strategic focus is on content. We invest consistently in bringing more and more original programming to more and more screens to connect with audiences and fuel growth.
A year ago, we pledged to redouble efforts to return ratings momentum, and we delivered on that promise, particularly at our flagship networks, Nickelodeon and MTV. We invested more than ever in programming to fuel new hits, and we also conducted a thoughtful evaluation and evolution of our development, installing new programming leadership, honing our brand filters, diversifying our producers and creative partners, refining our scheduling and leveraging our audience connections across platforms in innovative ways.
In the September quarter, ratings were up year-over-year at nearly every network in our portfolio, including Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, SPIKE, CMT and Nick at Nite, among others. We made particular progress in growing range in those demos and dayparts where the opportunity for monetization is the greatest. On a revenue-weighted basis, ratings on our networks were up double digits. SPIKE notched its highest quarterly rating in nearly 3 years. MTV2 had its highest-rated quarter ever as it continues to evolve into much more than a [indiscernible] brand for MTV with successful originals including Guy Code and Wild 'N Out.
Nickelodeon achieved its greatest year-over-year ratings improvement in 16 years. In fact, October marked Nick's ninth straight month of year-over-year ratings growth. Nickelodeon's success is due to it's balance of new original hits, including Sam and Cat, The Haunted Hathaways, Sanjay and Craig, Rabbids Invasion and the continued strength of established hits including SpongeBob and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A new Nickelodeon programming team has increased its output while maintaining a solid hit ratio.
Importantly, while we're seeing great ratings improvement, we've yet to see the full impact of this new generation of hits. As we launch more and more original episodes of these shows, we'll see even greater impact on our ratings across the schedule. And yet, Nickelodeon is keeping its foot on the programming pedal, aggressively green lighting a diverse new slate of series, increasing the volume in its content pipeline and building for the future.
At MTV, the network made a bold statement on the enduring power and cultural impact of its brand with the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, which attracted 10.1 million viewers and created a Miley Cyrus moment that is still reverberating across the pop culture landscape. MTV continues to build out a balanced schedule of originals including scripted fare like Teen Wolf and Awkward, reality hits including Catfish and Teen Mom and cost-effective utility series such as Ridiculousness and Girl Code that comprise the kind of diverse offerings that the millennial audience demands and advertisers love.
In fiscal 2014, MTV is ramping up to introduce a new wave of original content developed by its new programming team, including Generation Cryo, House of Food, Virgin Territory, Jerks with Cameras, and new scripted series, Faking It and Happyland, and look for a special Miley weekend this quarter.
In fiscal 2013, across our networks, we executed against strategic priorities with great results, whether it was continuing to implement new brand filters and increase programming investments at CMT and SPIKE to drive ratings growth, reinvesting the BET Awards through the usually successful BET Experience, building a great bench of new young talent at Comedy Central with Amy Schumer, Nick Kroll, Key and Peele and more, or even establishing a strong new format at VH1 in rock biographical firms with CrazySexyCool. We deployed our $3 billion investment in content in more new episodes, formats and genres, and the result is portfolio widespreads and programming development that gives us a great foundation as we enter a new fiscal year.
Of course, we are aggressively monetizing this strength. For the September quarter, we grew domestic advertising by 10%. This is not only attributable to our ratings improvement but also to the efforts of our ad sales organization to build one of the most client-centric, solutions-oriented teams in the business. And networks are leaders not only in creating connected content across screens for audiences but also for advertisers. And we continue to enhance our best-in-class integrated marketing capabilities to meet ever-growing advertiser demand for custom marketing solutions that leverage our creative capabilities. While we are only halfway through this quarter, we currently anticipate mid-single-digit growth in ad sales for the quarter. This will lay the foundation for significant improvement in full year ad sales growth built in our programming rollout across our networks, our upfront calendarization and a steadily improving economy.
On the distribution side, the highlight of fiscal 2013 was our landmark multiyear agreement with Amazon to stream library content through Prime Instant Video. The agreement demonstrated our ability to collect significant value for our content through a new growing distributor but also to smartly orchestrate our content windowing so that we can do additional deals as new entrants come to market. At the same time, our biggest priority is to work with our cable, satellite and telco distributors as they innovate and bring new products to market.
Creating hits and driving ratings remains a priority. We continue to build on the current success of our channels, but we're also actively preparing for the future. Our audiences are driving the changes in content consumption that are reshaping the media landscape. We're positioning ourselves to capitalize on these changes across multiple platforms and devices.
This year, we've successfully launched branded channel apps for Nickelodeon, MTV, and very recently, VH1 and CMT. And we're launching apps for Comedy Central and Logo in the coming months. The Nickelodeon app has attracted more than 5 million installs alone, and each of the apps is garnering significant time spent and commanding premium CPMs. We're also experimenting in how we deliver content on these apps. For example, MTV recently released the complete season of its new series, Wait Till Next Year, on its app in advance of its own air premiere. Much of the video we're delivering via app is thanks to our TV Everywhere agreements. 10 distributors currently support our authenticated apps and websites, and we expect to reach additional agreements soon.
Despite challenging macroeconomic conditions in Europe, we made several strategic moves in fiscal 2013 to position ourselves well for the international growth. We aligned our cost structure by launching a number of new channels, including the Paramount Channel in France and Comedy Central Asia, and taking full operational ownership of our MTV channels in Brazil, Russia and Italy. More recently, the 2013 MTV European Music Awards in Amsterdam on Sunday grew ratings in its key demo by over 40%, including big growth in the U.K., Italy and the host country of the Netherlands. The show also rated highly on MTV in the U.S. We will continue to expand our channel presence into 2014. The stabilization we are seeing in the European economy, coupled with our strategic development, should return us to a path for substantial growth in our international results.
In Filmed Entertainment, Paramount began its fiscal year with a very successful run of our branded film, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, which is well in its way to reaching $100 million in domestic box office. In fiscal 2013, the studio delivered strong performing new installments of its Star Trek, Paranormal Activity, and G.I. Joe franchises and launched a new franchise in World War Z. We are very excited about Paramount's 2014 slate. It includes a diverse mix of films that underscores Paramount's commitment to serving all audiences. This includes established tent poles such as the upcoming Anchorman 2 and Transformers 4 next summer, as well as films this award season from Oscar-winning filmmakers including Alexander Payne's Nebraska and Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, and after that, proprietary franchise films such as Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Paramount is also established a lean television production organization that, together with its existing digital unit, will intelligently take advantage of growing opportunities for quality original content on a wide range of platforms.
To close, a great fourth quarter of substantial top and bottom line growth concluded a strong fiscal 2013 for Viacom. A year marked by reinvention and renewed ratings and operating momentum. We also continue to restructure our operations to find operating efficiencies. Savings achieved will fund our investment in people and technologies to drive us to an even brighter future as we control the growth of our overall expenses.
As we enter a new fiscal year, we will maintain our laser-like focus on investing in content, the lifeblood of our company. We will continue to innovate in developing new content, new marketing initiatives and new ways to reach consumers in more places on more devices. As we transform our company to take advantage of all the new opportunities for our content and our brands, we will steadfastly continue to make good on our pledge to return substantial capital and value to our shareholders.
Thank you. And with that, I'll turn it over to Wade.
Wade Davis - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development
Thanks, Philippe. Before I take you through our operating results, I want to note that our earnings release and web presentations summarizing the results for our September quarter are available on our website. Now let's take a look at our segment results.
At our Media Networks segment, revenue in the quarter were up 7% compared with the prior year with domestic revenues up 8% and international revenues up 2%. Foreign exchange had a 1-percentage-point unfavorable impact on international revenues. The increase in revenues in the quarter was principally driven by increases in advertising and affiliate revenues. Page 10 of our web deck provides a breakdown of our Media Networks revenue performance.
Domestic advertising revenues were up 10% in the quarter, and international revenues were up 3%. As Philippe mentioned, Europe is starting to show signs of stabilization. In terms of affiliate revenues, domestic revenues increased 6% in the quarter while international revenues were up 4%. Excluding the impact from the timing of product available under digital distribution agreements, domestic affiliate revenues grew high single digits. Growth in international revenues was due to rate and subscriber increases.
Expenses increased 5% in the quarter. Within expenses, programming expense grew 6% while SG&A expense increased 4%. The increase in SG&A expense was primarily due to higher incentive-based compensation.
Media Networks adjusted operating income was up 11%, and the adjusted operating income margin was 42%, an increase of 140 basis points compared to the prior year. The margin increase was driven by top line growth of 7%, partially offset by 5% growth in expenses.
Moving to Filmed Entertainment, revenues were up 11% in the quarter, principally due to higher home entertainment and ancillary revenues. Page 12 of the web presentation provides a breakdown of Filmed Entertainment revenues.
Theatrical revenues increased 31%, primarily due to higher carryover revenues from the June quarter release of World War Z. Home entertainment revenues were up 24%, reflecting the strong mix of titles released in the quarter, including Star Trek Into Darkness, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and World War Z. TV license fees were down 17%, driven by the number and mix of titles available. Ancillary revenues increased 54%, primarily reflecting the Marvel distribution rights sales, as well as growth in the proportion of digital distribution revenues for key entertainment titles released in the quarter.
Filmed Entertainment generated adjusted operating income of $291 million in the quarter as compared to $195 million last year. The increase principally reflects the profitability of home entertainment titles, as well as profits from ancillary revenues.
Now touching on corporate. Expenses increased $32 million in the quarter. The increase relates to the higher deferred compensation costs related to the appreciation in our stock price, as well as higher incentive-based compensation cost. For fiscal year 2013, the adjusted effective tax rate was 32.9%, reflecting a 110-basis-point improvement over the prior fiscal year's adjusted rate. The reduction in the effective tax rate was primarily driven by the mix of international versus domestic income.
And with that, I would like to turn the call over to Tom.
Thomas E. Dooley - Chief Operating Officer, Senior Executive Vice President and Director
Thanks, Wade, and good morning, everyone. Let me talk about our cash flow, our debt profile and the return of capital to our shareholders. I'll also cover the seasonal factors impacting our 2014 fiscal year.
For the quarter, we generated approximately $1.1 billion in operating free cash flow and exceeded $3 billion in free cash flow for the full year. Page 5 of the web deck presentation provides the components of free cash flow. The increase in operating free cash flow for the quarter was principally due to lower cash taxes and higher operating income. Cash taxes benefited from provisions allowing for accelerated deductions related to domestic film and TV production expenses, as well as from the timing of cash tax payments.
Now turning to our debt. For the most part, it is fixed rate with an average cost at quarter end of 4.6%. On our last call, we indicated that we were comfortable returning to our target leverage ratio to the pre-recession range of 2.75 to 3.0x. Accordingly, during the September quarter, we issued a total of $3 billion in senior notes and debentures in a combination of 5-, 10- and 30-year maturities. We were able to issue the new debt at a rate commensurate with our overall cost of debt while at the same time extending our weighted average maturity.
In terms of our short-term funding, to the extent we have incremental borrowings, we are funding this in the commercial paper marketplace at an annual rate of approximately 25 basis points. We had no variable rate borrowings outstanding at quarter end.
As for our leverage, we ended the quarter with $11.9 billion of debt and capital leases outstanding. We had $2.4 billion of cash and cash equivalents, some of which will be deployed towards our buyback program. Our leverage ratio at the end of the quarter was 2.8x. At September 30, our $2.5 billion bank revolver was undrawn.
Our return of capital to shareholders continued in the September quarter. Between our buyback and dividend programs, we returned a total of approximately $2.8 billion of capital back to our shareholders. Looking ahead, we are on pace to purchase approximately $850 million of our stock in the December quarter. Our capital return has been consistent. If you look back 3 years to when we started our current share repurchase program, our stock was trading at approximately $36. Since then, between buybacks and dividends, we have returned a total of $12 billion to our shareholders or approximately $20 for each share outstanding at the start of the current program.
If you go back to 2006, when the 2 companies split, we have bought back an aggregate of 336 million shares in the open market at an average share price of $47. At the end of September, we had 449 million shares outstanding. At our current buyback rate, we will purchase more than 10 million shares in the December quarter based on our current stock price. If you exclude the shares owned by National Amusements, we will have less than 400 million shares outstanding at of the end of December.
Now let's turn to some of the factors impacting our 2014 fiscal year. In terms of our affiliate revenue, we continue to see growth in the high single-digit to low double-digit range. However, quarterly affiliate revenue will fluctuate given the timing of transactions and the recognition of revenue related to some digital agreements which are tied to product availability.
For the full year, we expect the growth rate for Media Networks programming expense to be in the high single digits. In terms of programming expense -- in terms of nonprogramming expense, we will continue to drive efficiencies throughout the organization in order to preserve and enhance our margins.
For 2014, we are forecasting a book tax rate of 34.5%. We will refinance as we go through the year and get a better sense of domestic versus international profitability mix.
Looking ahead at the studio's production and development pipeline, we are currently in production in partnership with Warner Bros. on Interstellar, which is directed by Chris Nolan. Paramount has a number of animation projects in the pipeline with SpongeBob and Monster Trucks scheduled as the first films to be released under their animation label. And we are in development on a number of sequels including Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, G.I. Joe, as well as World War Z.
In summary, 2013 marked a year of accomplishments on several fronts. As we reinvigorated a number of our programming and development teams and increased our investment in original programming, we saw a turnaround in ratings at many of our networks. Our ad sales performance rebounded, and we achieved double-digit growth in our domestic affiliate revenue for the seventh year in a row. We leveraged this improved operational performance to return a record amount of capital to our shareholders.
As we look forward, our focus continues to be on creating content and experiences that engage our audiences on every screen. We are investing in our organization and our infrastructure in order to monetize our audiences as they embrace new platforms and new technologies. These investments are enabling us to create unique opportunities and additional value for our advertising and distribution partners.
With that, I will turn the call over to your questions. Operator?
Question-and-Answer Session
[...]
Operator
And we'll take our next question from Doug Mitchelson of Deutsche Bank.
Douglas D. Mitchelson - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Two questions. I guess we'll jump balls. First, can you talk about the puts and takes driving December quarter domestic ad growth?
Philippe P. Dauman - Chief Executive Officer, President and Not Independent Director
Well, we have -- for this quarter, we have new programming rolling out as the quarter progresses, a lot of new series that are premiering, great lineup for Nickelodeon. it's going to have a huge Thanksgiving weekend with a lot of original premieres and movies. We see good volume in the scatter market to build on a good foundation that we obtained in the upfront market. By the way, as the year progresses, the calendarization of the upfront gets better for us. So we see optimism ahead for the year as we go on, and a lot of our new programming and some of our other networks such as MTV and BET and others are really kicking in as the year progresses. See we expect this quarter to be solid and the year to be solid.
[...]
Operator
And we'll take our next question from Alexia Quadrani of JPMorgan.
Alexia S. Quadrani - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Just staying on the strong growth that you saw in the September quarter, were there -- was it really driven by any, I guess, one network? Did one network start to stand out as sort of a bigger driver of that growth? And then second question is sort of the improvement at Nick at Nite, did that sort of broaden your advertiser base a bit? I mean, with the demographics being a bit older, are you finding yourself pulling in maybe some advertisers more traditional for broadcast?
Philippe P. Dauman - Chief Executive Officer, President and Not Independent Director
Really, the strength in the quarter was pretty much across the board in our networks. And obviously, when you compare the fact that Nickelodeon, all the Nickelodeon dial, Nick and Nick at Nite as you point out, the improved ratings clearly helped. But the across the board, we had strength. And yes, Nick at Nite, along with TV Land and CMT, give us the -- and other dayparts in other networks give us the opportunity to capture some of the older demos to build on our strength in the younger demos. And we can pick up some off-broadcast ad dollars through that. So as our ratings grow or continue strong in those demos, it gives us the opportunity to gain market share there.
[...]
Operator
And we'll take our next question from John Janedis of UBS.
John Janedis - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Philippe, you talked about some of the new programming. Are your original hours increasing this year across the platform? And as you move to more originals versus licensed, how has cost per hour changed?
Philippe P. Dauman - Chief Executive Officer, President and Not Independent Director
Well, yes, so the answer is we are increasing the number of original hours across the board. That's how we're applying incremental spending. We still are acquiring third-party programming, particularly for networks like TV Land and Nick at Nite. But original programming gives us the ability to build our brands better. It gives us programming that we can exploit through different platforms and new distributors. So it creates a lot of value for us. We look at the mix of original programming. So we have some low-cost, efficient programming that repeats really well. For example, Ridiculousness on MTV. We have -- we launched a new format on Comedy Central, @midnight, which is performing very well so far. And then we'll have, obviously, more expensive scripted series. So if you look at it on a blended basis and impact, we see that it is improving our overall results and we continue to look to drive our margins as we continue to invest in programming. And of course, original programming, the more original programming we have, the more distribution and ancillary revenues we have the opportunity to generate.
John Janedis - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Maybe somewhat related to that, as you know, there's been some concern in having some Nick programming available online is creating some ratings issues. You referenced the growth there. Are you at a point now where it's pretty clear that any shift in viewing is minimum? And are there any metrics you can share on that?
Philippe P. Dauman - Chief Executive Officer, President and Not Independent Director
Well, in terms of the Nickelodeon programming, as you know, during the course of the summer, we shifted the Nickelodeon programming from Netflix to Amazon Prime. The impact was minimal when it was on Netflix. Given the narrower reach of Amazon Prime, while it's a very successful driver for Amazon Prime and it's a great partnership, there is significantly lower distribution than Netflix had. And for Nickelodeon content on Amazon Prime, it works really well for us because it's a great brand-new environment. We believe that we get discovery of our programming on new kits. And it helps consumer product sales on Amazon. So we manage that distribution to make sure we maximize our overall revenue and margin.
Operator
And we'll take our next question from Alan Gould of Evercore.
Alan S. Gould - Evercore Partners Inc., Research Division
I've got a couple of questions. First, can you tell us what percent of your subs come up with new affiliate deals this year? And secondly, I believe we're coming up to the Hard Eight or the Hard Ten [ph], the big Nickelodeon selling season. I mean you probably have a pretty good idea of that. How is the kid's advertising versus your overall advertising?
Philippe P. Dauman - Chief Executive Officer, President and Not Independent Director
Look, the way I would characterize our affiliate deals, the way we have our renewals lined up now, in any given year, we have under 20% of our revenues up for renewal. That's just the way we have staggered our deals over the last several years. And you can understand that we don't want to get more precise than that. And the overall ad market is shaping up well for us. Nickelodeon has great vitality. The programming is working. Our advertisers are really pleased with what Nickelodeon has done. And Nickelodeon will grab the overwhelming majority of the advertising money available at Hard Eight and otherwise.
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Operator
We'll take our next question from Dan Salmon of BMO Capital Markets.
Daniel Salmon - BMO Capital Markets U.S.
My question was mostly about international profitability as well, so just I'll ask maybe for a little bit more color by country, any one that are maybe a little better than expected, a little worse and that we could maybe see pickup from?
Philippe P. Dauman - Chief Executive Officer, President and Not Independent Director
Again, U.K. has been a pretty solid market. We see a great opportunities in Latin America, particularly now that we were able recently to take control of MTV in Brazil. And with that, we are already getting good distribution. We have more opportunities to expand with other networks. We are expanding the Paramount Channel across new territories. We recently launched it in France. France is doing better. Southern Europe, we see stabilization in Spain and Italy, again, we our taking control of the network. We see opportunity there. Russia, again, we were able to launch MTV. We have Nickelodeon distribution. So we see good growth ahead in the years to come. And the India joint venture that we're in continues to get stronger. We will add scale in India with our joint venture partners, and that continues to be a growing media market. And we are already creating significant value for Viacom today in India and will in the future. So really, I go across the world and I see a lot of opportunity over many years to grow our business, and we are committed to making our international networks business a very significant part of Viacom.
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Additionally, Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB and VIA) announced on Wednesday 14th November 2013 that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share on both its Class A and Class B common stock. The dividend will be payable on Tuesday 31st December 2013, 2013 to stockholders of record at the close of business on Friday 13th December 2013.
