Philippe Dauman, the new CEO of Viacom, says that he will take MTV Networks and turn its digital business into a revenue-generating machine at a far faster pace than Tom Freston, the recently released CEO of the company, said he could.
He asserts that MTV Networks will bring in $500 million in digital revenue two years before Freston had projected in May.
"We see our digital ad sales expanding at high double-digit growth rates," said Dauman, speaking on a conference call.
Dauman also commented that the strategy will be to enlarge the current properties of the company, rather than grow through acquisition.
The first thing to consider about this is that Dauman had to say this statement. His predecessor spoke of the time he thought it would take to do it and was fired as a result. So the assertion itself means nothing. The question is if the $500 million in digital revenue has a way to really happen. I think it might have.
For one thing they just took complete control of BET.com, which should give them a good revenue boost, and they have their Paramount Pictures library that they want to monetize online. These two could give them the platform to possibly reach the goal.
The one good thing that Dauman added was that transitioning to the digital space was his No. 1 priority. That's a good sign for Viacom.
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