US media giant Viacom reported second quarter profits of 434 million dollars Thursday, as the strong performance of Shrek the Third helped the company handily beat analysts' expectations, according to dpa. The profit figure of 54 cents a share represented a 1-per-cent drop from the results of a year ago. But analysts had predicted a net income of 50 cents a share. Revenue rose 13 per cent to 3.19 billion dollars, beating Wall Street expectations of 3.06 billion dollars. Revenue from movie studios, which includes Paramount, rose 20 per cent to 1.3 billion dollars while global advertising revenue rose 6 per cent to 1.15 billion dollars. Revenue from cable networks divisions including MTV Networks rose 10 per cent.
