Viacom (NYSE: VIA) and Judy McGrath said this morning that the longtime head of MTV Networks has resigned. Company sources stress the decision is McGrath’s—and, after making it through some very tough sledding, she leaves MTVN at the top of its game. McGrath, with MTV almost since the beginning, will…

Apps and VOD are going to be the main focus of Viacom’s digital efforts this year, said Philippe Dauman, CEO, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) at the beginning of the company’s earnings call this morning. Meanwhile, as the ratings success of Jersey Shore gave MTV its highest ratings ever, the company is…

Did you expect Philippe Dauman to last this long as CEO of Viacom? (NYSE: VIA) More than a few times, I heard variations of “he’s a lawyer, not an entertainment guy.” Translation: He’s no Tom Freston. True, but the man Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone calls his “forever friend” has been…

CBS (NYSE: CBS) CEO Leslie Moonves made $43 million in 2009, more than double his 2008 compensation of $21 million. Sounds good but keep this in mind: both years combined don’t equal the staggering $67.7 million from 2007. His base salary barely budged over those three years, staying at $3.5…

Yesterday the Viacom (NYSE: VIA) board announced a five-year contract extension for CEO Philippe Dauman through 2016 and now that the SEC filing has been made we know about the compensation that goes with it. Effective Jan. 1, Dauman got a $1 million raise to $3.5 million from $2.5 million.…

Following an extension that keeps Leslie Moonves at CBS (NYSE: CBS) through 2015, Sumner Redstone has locked in longtime friend and adviser Philippe Dauman as CEO of Viacom (NYSE: VIA) through 2016. Dauman’s previous contract was through 2011; his new contract adds another five years. Dauman was already on the…

Barring a last-minute fix or change of strategy, at midnight Tuesday Hulu.com will switch from a co-host for online video of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report to a referral engine for the popular shows. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) execs like to call it a test but…

MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) is “about done” with the upfront, Viacom CEO Philipe Dauman told analysts on the company’s Q2 earnings call this morning. “Given current conditions, we’re very pleased,” he added. As for those current conditions, domestic ad revenues declined 6 percent in Q2, which may sound tough but…

In his introduction of Viacom (NYSE: VIA) CEO Philippe Dauman at an afternoon keynote at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit, Dauman’s interviewer Ron Grover, BusinessWeek’s LA bureau chief, offered some family history with the aid of a year-old LA Times piece. Back in 1996, Dauman’s father, a freelance photographer living in…

Asked about Viacom’s $8.5 billion in debt, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) President & CEO Philippe Dauman told attendees at the UBS Global Media and Communications (PDF) conference that the company is focused on organic growth and tended to avoid acquisitions for the past two years. The most notable one during that…

Practically every other sentence uttered by Viacom (NYSE: VIA) President/CEO Philippe Dauman in a Q&A at the day two of the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money Conference featured the words “operating efficiently and prudently”—a fair indication of how dark the media economy is looking right now. Asked about his relationship…

Friday’s shock selloff by Sumner Redstone had Viacom’s (NYSE: VIA) stock reeling, but company CEO Philippe Dauman remained confident about the outlook for his company, he said at the Mipcom keynote today. Late last week Redstone announced a $233 million sell-off in CBS (NYSE: CBS) and Viacom stock by his…

After standing above its peers for so long, Viacom (NYSE: VIA) has come back to earth in 2008, with its share now sitting close to its 52-week low. Kicking off the call, Chairman Sumner Redstone acknowledged the frustration of shareholders, stating that media was not immune to an economic downturn.…

This morning at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, the opening keynote session was a Q&A between Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), moderated by Andy Serwer. It sorta fell flat for most of the session…maybe it…

The Viacom (NYSE: VIA) booth is usually a swirl of activity at The Cable Show and this year was no exception—Dora The Explorer posing for photos, the Nick animators doing on the spot illustrations, CMT stars hugging and autographing, and RockBand taking it all to a new noise level as…

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) was a rarity in 2007: a major media company whose stock rose. It wasn’t by much, mind you—from $41.01 to $43.98—but still impressive compared to its peers. For his first full year on the job, CEO Philippe Dauman, in the news today for a new studio JV,…

One sign that a company is ultra serious about a new venture: when the CEO of a major media company does press calls on a Sunday afternoon. Viacom (NYSE: VIA) CEO Philippe Dauman was doing just that today, as he explained the surprising decision to band together with Lionsgate and…

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) has disparate brands in a range of entertainment areas, all of which have tremendous potential—especially if the company is successful at getting them to complement each other. That was the basic theme (if you could call it that) of a q-and-a with Philippe Dauman, CEO, Viacom, during…