Viacom Inc., the U.S. media conglomerate, saw second-quarter profit plunge on weak ad markets.

The New York-based company, which owns BET, MTV cable TV networks and the Paramount Pictures movie studio, said Tuesday it earned 277 million U.S. dollars, or 46 cents per share, in the quarter, a 32 percent drop from 407 million dollars, or 65 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding 3 cents per share in severance charges, adjusted earnings were 49 cents per share. On that basis, earnings beat analyst expectations by a penny per share.

Revenue was down 14 percent to 3.3 billion dollars, missing analysts' estimate of 3.5 billion dollars.

Domestic ad revenue dropped 6 percent and international advertising was down 8 percent while theatrical revenue dropped 27 percent and home entertainment fell 29 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2009)