Viacom shares tumble on revenue miss

Shares of Viacom - owner of Paramount Pictures movie studio - fell over 14% after the company announced a steep drop in quarterly revenue.

Viacom's revenue fell by 6% to $3.2bn (£2.2bn) compared to a year earlier.

The company, which owns the cable channels Comedy Central and Nickelodeon was hit by lower advertising revenue.

Viacom announced a leadership change last week, replacing 92 year-old Sumner Redstone, with chief executive Philippe Dauman as chairman of the board.

"2015 was a challenging year operationally as we redesigned ourselves and adapted to significant industry disruption. Our first fiscal quarter of 2016 reflected these challenges," said Mr Dauman.

Analysts had been expecting the company's overall revenue to come in at $3.26bn.

The company's profit fell 10% to $449m in the quarter, as global advertising revenue fell by 3%.

Viacom's cable channels have struggled to maintain audiences as younger viewers switch to watching television on mobile devices and computers.

Paramount pictures also struggled. The movie studio's revenue fell 15% and it experienced an operating loss of $146m.

Mario Gabelli, the second-largest owner of voting shares in Viacom after the Redstone family, said Mr Dauman had six to nine months to turn the company around and focus more on digital and mobile advertising.

On Tuesday, Viacom announced it had reached a deal with social media company Snapchat. The deal gives Viacom exclusive rights to advertise around Snapchat content.