Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), the parent company of the Nickelodeon brand, has today, Thursday 13th November 2014, reported record results for the fiscal year ended Tuesday 30th September 2014, driven by gains in its Media Networks segment! Results for the fourth quarter of 2014 reflected a 9% increase in revenues to $3.99 billion, adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom of $729 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.71, an increase of 10%.
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Revenues for the full fiscal year were $13.78 billion, substantially unchanged from the previous year, as higher Media Networks revenues were offset by lower Filmed Entertainment revenues. Full-year adjusted operating income grew 5% to a record $4.13 billion and adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom rose 3% to $2.38 billion. Full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 15% to an all-time high of $5.40.
Sumner M. Redstone, Executive Chairman of Viacom, said, "As we conclude another fiscal year, Viacom remains well-positioned as a creative leader with many of the world's most innovative media properties and best entertainment brands."
Philippe Dauman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom, said, "Viacom's record financial results in 2014 demonstrate the strength of our brands and continuing momentum for our strategy of investing in creativity, with a relentless focus on growing demographic and geographic markets and embracing new distribution platforms. Our Media Networks achieved continued growth in the fourth quarter and the fiscal year. Viacom's affiliate distribution business remains a reliable engine for high-margin revenue expansion and provides significant opportunities to build new consumer experiences with long term distributors and emerging technology partners alike. Despite ratings challenges and uncertainty in the scatter advertising market at the close of the year, Viacom's advertising revenues grew in fiscal 2014, as our creative and marketing teams rolled out innovative new offerings. We also continue to take the lead in defining the next generation of measurement tools that will more fully capture the growing multiplatform engagement of our audiences. Our September acquisition of Channel 5 has already made a positive impact on our business, and points the way to further significant long-term growth of our international business. Paramount delivered the top movie of 2014 and the largest-ever theatrical release in China - Transformers: Age of Extinction - and the studio successfully launched another long-term franchise with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
"This performance allowed us to continue the strong delivery of value directly to investors. Over the past five years, Viacom has returned $16.1 billion to shareholders."
Quarterly revenues increased 9% to $3.99 billion. Media Networks revenues grew 8% to $2.66 billion, principally due to growth in affiliate fees. Domestic and worldwide affiliate revenues increased 21% and 22%, respectively, primarily due to rate increases and higher revenues related to the timing of available programming from certain distribution agreements. Excluding the impact of these arrangements, the domestic affiliate revenue growth rate was in the high single digits. Domestic advertising revenues declined 5%, reflecting ratings challenges. Worldwide advertising revenues decreased 2%, reflecting the domestic decline partially offset by a 33% increase in international advertising revenues. International advertising revenues benefited from the acquisition of Channel 5 on September 10, 2014.
Filmed Entertainment revenues grew 12% to $1.36 billion, due to growth in theatrical revenues. Strong results from current quarter releases and the carryover performance of Transformers: Age of Extinction drove Theatrical revenues up 226% to $557 million. Home entertainment revenues declined 38%, reflecting two fewer releases in the current quarter.
Full-year revenues were $13.78 billion, substantially flat compared to the prior fiscal year. Media Networks revenues rose 5% to $10.17 billion, reflecting a 10% increase in affiliate fees and a 2% gain in advertising revenues driven by higher international advertising revenues. Filmed Entertainment revenues decreased 13%, principally due to lower revenues across the distribution windows reflecting the number and mix of films.
Quarterly adjusted operating income was $1.21 billion, flat compared to the prior year. Media Networks adjusted operating income rose 5% due to higher affiliate revenues, partially offset by increased expenses. Filmed Entertainment adjusted operating income declined 27%, reflecting the contribution of Marvel distribution rights sales in the fourth quarter of 2013. Corporate expenses declined by 21%, due to lower deferred compensation costs.
Full-year adjusted operating income increased 5%, to $4.13 billion, a record for the company. Media Networks adjusted operating income increased $175 million, or 4%, driven by higher revenues partially offset by an increase in expenses. Filmed Entertainment adjusted operating income decreased $29 million, reflecting the contribution of Marvel distribution rights sales in the prior year. Corporate expenses decreased 10% in the period, primarily due to lower deferred compensation costs.
Quarterly adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom were down slightly to $729 million, driven by an increase in interest expense. Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for the quarter were $1.71, a 10% increase from the prior year's comparable quarter.
Full-year adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom increased 3%, to $2.38 billion. The increase resulted from higher adjusted operating income, higher equity in net earnings of investee companies and a lower effective income tax rate, partially offset by an increase in interest expense and higher net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interests. Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 15% to $5.40.
For the quarter ended September 30, 2014, Viacom repurchased 10.4 million shares under its stock repurchase program, for an aggregate purchase price of $850 million. As of November 12, 2014, Viacom had $6.24 billion remaining in its $20 billion stock repurchase program. As of September 30, 2014, Viacom had 414 million shares of common stock outstanding.
At September 30, 2014, total debt outstanding, including capital lease obligations, was $12.77 billion, compared with $11.89 billion at September 30, 2013. The Company's cash balances were $1 billion at September 30, 2014, a decrease from $2.4 billion at September 30, 2013.
You can read Viacom's press release announcing the company's earnings and growth during 4Q14 in full, including tables of Viacom's statements and balance sheets, here on BusinessWire.com.
Also, below is Viacom's Q4 2014 Results Earnings Call Transcript, in which Viacom Management discusses the company's Q4 2014 Results and future plans for Nickelodeon, from Seeking Alpha:
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon and Viacom News and Highlights!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon and Viacom News and Highlights!
Revenues for the full fiscal year were $13.78 billion, substantially unchanged from the previous year, as higher Media Networks revenues were offset by lower Filmed Entertainment revenues. Full-year adjusted operating income grew 5% to a record $4.13 billion and adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom rose 3% to $2.38 billion. Full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 15% to an all-time high of $5.40.
Sumner M. Redstone, Executive Chairman of Viacom, said, "As we conclude another fiscal year, Viacom remains well-positioned as a creative leader with many of the world's most innovative media properties and best entertainment brands."
Philippe Dauman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom, said, "Viacom's record financial results in 2014 demonstrate the strength of our brands and continuing momentum for our strategy of investing in creativity, with a relentless focus on growing demographic and geographic markets and embracing new distribution platforms. Our Media Networks achieved continued growth in the fourth quarter and the fiscal year. Viacom's affiliate distribution business remains a reliable engine for high-margin revenue expansion and provides significant opportunities to build new consumer experiences with long term distributors and emerging technology partners alike. Despite ratings challenges and uncertainty in the scatter advertising market at the close of the year, Viacom's advertising revenues grew in fiscal 2014, as our creative and marketing teams rolled out innovative new offerings. We also continue to take the lead in defining the next generation of measurement tools that will more fully capture the growing multiplatform engagement of our audiences. Our September acquisition of Channel 5 has already made a positive impact on our business, and points the way to further significant long-term growth of our international business. Paramount delivered the top movie of 2014 and the largest-ever theatrical release in China - Transformers: Age of Extinction - and the studio successfully launched another long-term franchise with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
"This performance allowed us to continue the strong delivery of value directly to investors. Over the past five years, Viacom has returned $16.1 billion to shareholders."
Quarterly revenues increased 9% to $3.99 billion. Media Networks revenues grew 8% to $2.66 billion, principally due to growth in affiliate fees. Domestic and worldwide affiliate revenues increased 21% and 22%, respectively, primarily due to rate increases and higher revenues related to the timing of available programming from certain distribution agreements. Excluding the impact of these arrangements, the domestic affiliate revenue growth rate was in the high single digits. Domestic advertising revenues declined 5%, reflecting ratings challenges. Worldwide advertising revenues decreased 2%, reflecting the domestic decline partially offset by a 33% increase in international advertising revenues. International advertising revenues benefited from the acquisition of Channel 5 on September 10, 2014.
Filmed Entertainment revenues grew 12% to $1.36 billion, due to growth in theatrical revenues. Strong results from current quarter releases and the carryover performance of Transformers: Age of Extinction drove Theatrical revenues up 226% to $557 million. Home entertainment revenues declined 38%, reflecting two fewer releases in the current quarter.
Full-year revenues were $13.78 billion, substantially flat compared to the prior fiscal year. Media Networks revenues rose 5% to $10.17 billion, reflecting a 10% increase in affiliate fees and a 2% gain in advertising revenues driven by higher international advertising revenues. Filmed Entertainment revenues decreased 13%, principally due to lower revenues across the distribution windows reflecting the number and mix of films.
Quarterly adjusted operating income was $1.21 billion, flat compared to the prior year. Media Networks adjusted operating income rose 5% due to higher affiliate revenues, partially offset by increased expenses. Filmed Entertainment adjusted operating income declined 27%, reflecting the contribution of Marvel distribution rights sales in the fourth quarter of 2013. Corporate expenses declined by 21%, due to lower deferred compensation costs.
Full-year adjusted operating income increased 5%, to $4.13 billion, a record for the company. Media Networks adjusted operating income increased $175 million, or 4%, driven by higher revenues partially offset by an increase in expenses. Filmed Entertainment adjusted operating income decreased $29 million, reflecting the contribution of Marvel distribution rights sales in the prior year. Corporate expenses decreased 10% in the period, primarily due to lower deferred compensation costs.
Quarterly adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom were down slightly to $729 million, driven by an increase in interest expense. Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for the quarter were $1.71, a 10% increase from the prior year's comparable quarter.
Full-year adjusted net earnings from continuing operations attributable to Viacom increased 3%, to $2.38 billion. The increase resulted from higher adjusted operating income, higher equity in net earnings of investee companies and a lower effective income tax rate, partially offset by an increase in interest expense and higher net earnings attributable to noncontrolling interests. Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 15% to $5.40.
For the quarter ended September 30, 2014, Viacom repurchased 10.4 million shares under its stock repurchase program, for an aggregate purchase price of $850 million. As of November 12, 2014, Viacom had $6.24 billion remaining in its $20 billion stock repurchase program. As of September 30, 2014, Viacom had 414 million shares of common stock outstanding.
At September 30, 2014, total debt outstanding, including capital lease obligations, was $12.77 billion, compared with $11.89 billion at September 30, 2013. The Company's cash balances were $1 billion at September 30, 2014, a decrease from $2.4 billion at September 30, 2013.
You can read Viacom's press release announcing the company's earnings and growth during 4Q14 in full, including tables of Viacom's statements and balance sheets, here on BusinessWire.com.
Also, below is Viacom's Q4 2014 Results Earnings Call Transcript, in which Viacom Management discusses the company's Q4 2014 Results and future plans for Nickelodeon, from Seeking Alpha:
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon and Viacom News and Highlights!
Viacom's (VIAB) CEO Philippe Dauman on Q4 2014 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Nov. 13, 2014 3:43 PM ET [...]
Viacom (NASDAQ:VIAB)
Q4 2014 Results Earnings Conference Call
September 13, 2014, 08:30 AM ET
Executives
James Bombassei - Senior Vice President of Investor Relations
Sumner M. Redstone - Founder and Executive Chairman
Philippe P. Dauman - President and Chief Executive Officer
Thomas E. Dooley - Chief Operating Officer
Wade C. Davis - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development
[...]
Operator
Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Viacom Fourth Quarter 2014 Earnings Release Teleconference. Today's call is being recorded.
At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Jim Bombassei. Please go ahead, sir.
James Bombassei - Senior Vice President of Investor Relations
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to join us for our earnings call for our September quarter. Joining me for today's discussion are Sumner Redstone, our Chairman; Philippe Dauman, our President and CEO; Tom Dooley, our Chief Operating Officer; and Wade Davis, our CFO. Please note that in addition to our press release, we have slides and trending schedules containing supplemental information available on our website.
I want to refer you to page number 2 in the web presentation and remind you that certain statements made on this call are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in more detail in our filings with the SEC. Today's remarks will focus on adjusted results. Reconciliations for non-GAAP financial information discussed on this call can be found in our earnings release or on our website.
And now I'll turn the call over to Sumner.
Sumner M. Redstone - Founder and Executive Chairman
Good morning, everyone. Here's my wise friend, Philippe
Philippe P. Dauman - President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Sumner, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us to discuss Viacom's fourth quarter and full year results for our 2014 fiscal year. Let me briefly recap the company' financial performance before sharing some operational and strategic highlights. Tom and Wade we'll go into greater detail on the results in a moment.
In the fourth quarter revenues increased 9% to $3.99 billion, adjusted operating income was $1.21 billion effectively unchanged from a year ago and adjusted net earnings from continuing operations were down 1% to $729 million. Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations increased 10% to $1.71.
For fiscal 2014 revenues were $13.78 billion essentially flat from the previous year. Adjusted operating income grew 5% to $4.13 billion, an all time record for Viacom. Full year adjusted net earnings from continuing operations rose 3% to $2.38 billion and full year adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 15% to $5.40. Our full year EPS also market an all time record for the company.
We continue to generate strong cash flow, enabling the company to invest consistently in content and new initiatives, expand its global footprint and return significant capital to shareholders.
In fiscal 2014 we returned $3.9 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends, that includes the repurchase of more than 40 million shares and more than $540 million in dividends paid. In the current quarter, we plan to purchase $750 million in stock. For the 2015 fiscal year, we plan to purchase at least $2.5 billion of our stock.
At our Media Networks, we invested well over $3 billion in content in the fiscal year. We remain committed to creating more original programming to grow our business and serve audiences who are consuming entertainment on more screens and in more ways than ever.
With growth in domestic and international programming investment and the addition of Channel 5 in the UK, our overall content investment in fiscal 2015 will be in the neighborhood of $3.8 billion.
Of course, the entire domestic television industry endured ratings challenges in the latter of fiscal 2014, due in part to the addition of the broadband only homes to the Nielsen sample, but also due to increased consumption on digital platforms that is not yet adequately measured.
Our young audiences remain on the leading edge of this trend and we are working toward two broad strategic objectives, implementing an industry standard that appropriately reflects our valuable and rapidly growing multi-platform viewer ship and aggressively moving towards non- Nielsen dependent advertising monetization.
Worldwide advertising revenue fell 2% in the September quarter, reflecting a 5% decrease in domestic advertising revenue in the quarter as a result of ratings declines. For the full fiscal year worldwide ad revenue was up 2% and domestic ad revenue was flat.
As we continue to work with the industry to accelerate the evolution of measurement systems, we are also being aggressive in creating new ways to monetize within the current evolving framework. The opportunity is significant.
A consumer products company's Director of Data Content and Media was recently quoted in AdAge as saying that more than three quarters of the digital impressions offered to advertisers to be rejected either because the impressions are fraudulent, unsafe, not viewable, don’t meet brand requirements or are unknown. She is said “Think about what this means for us as an industry when we are rejecting 75% to 85%of the impressions available, that’s a problem”.
We at Viacom have the solutions to this problem, premium, safe, professionally produced video content in a reliable branded environment, animated by our unparallel marketing capabilities. Across all platforms beginning with television, our Viacom Velocity integrated marketing and branded content unit continues to expand its capabilities, grow its client roster, and earn a greater share of marketing budgets.
Its pioneering work to measure, analyze and monetize our huge social media rich through Viacom Echo has been a big hit with advertisers. We're capitalizing on our robust data program, going beyond just selling against demos. Today, we help our advertisers target highly specific market segments across our brands and platforms, driven by unparallel research and data. We are increasing the amount of digital advertising inventory in our dotcoms, our apps and new mobile products we will be launching in 2015.
Dynamic ad insertion is a rapidly growing opportunity for us. As we completed agreements with more MVPDs, most recently Verizon and better monetized our substantial share of the cable, video-on-demand market.
In fiscal 2014, 30% of our domestic ad sales were non-Nielsen dependent. As we increased first party data driven advertising on our digital and mobile platform, sponsorships and Viacom Velocity integrated marketing solutions, dynamic ad insertion and other high value advertising opportunities, our objective over the next three years is to drive an increase in the percentage of non- Nielsen dependent domestic ad sales to 50%.
At the same time, we hope and expect that the Nielsen measurement related to the other 50% will significantly improve in its reliability and capacity to capture so called TV everywhere viewing. These initiatives will result in more predictable advertising growth for Viacom in the years to come.
On the distributions side, the landscape continues to evolve and we are benefiting from this change. Some of our strongest distribution partners were barely on the radar five years ago, and we expect new players to emerge in the next five years as well.
Just as we were the first to partner with Satellite Services, Telco Distributors, and SVOD services and most recently Sony's forthcoming PlayStation Vue TV service, we will continue to maintain our strength on existing platforms and be early adopters of new platforms, mirroring the behavior of our audiences and capturing great value for our brands.
In addition to the new deal with Sony, we recently renewed our agreements with Hulu and Amazon. As part of our Verizon renewal, we will provide content for a new Verizon Wireless mobile product. And we are looking forward to the expansion of Google Fiber into new markets, including Austin in December, and the opportunity it will give audiences to access our programming in yet another new way.
In the past 12 months, we have concluded favorable multi year renewals covering about 25% of our total domestic subscribers, including Time Warner Cable, Verizon, more than 800 NCTC member distributors totaling more than 4.8 million subscribers and most recently Frontier Communications which has approximately 260,000 subscribers.
We now have 70% of our subscribers covered by affiliate agreements that won't expire for at least three years and go out for as long as eight years. These renewals were completed on terms that can confirm our long-term guidance for high single to low double-digit growth in year-over-year affiliate revenue.
Meanwhile, two small distributors that elected not to renew their carriage agreements with us are continuing to lose video subscribers since that decision. And this shrinkage is likely to continue. In contrast, we are continuing to welcome back their former subscribers who have switched to other providers in order to enjoy our popular family of brands, which include an industry leading seven out of the top 30 and eleven of the top 50 ad supported cable networks in people two plus and an industry leading eight out of the top 30 at a 11 of the top 50 in people 18 to 49.
In the September quarter, worldwide affiliate revenue was up 22% and domestic affiliate revenue was up 21%. For the full fiscal 2014 both worldwide and domestic affiliate revenue increased 10%. Looking ahead, we are fueling our brands in all platforms with strong sustained investment in content.
MTVs fans are among the most voracious consumers of content and the brand is formidable with youth. It was once again the number one global used media brand in 2014 according to Interbrand, and it dominates social media with more than 200 million followers.
But MTVs audience has also rapidly embraced non-linear viewing and the brand is aggressively reinventing its user experience to match, going beyond television and reasserting its standing as the cultural home at millennial generation on every screen.
MTVs Always On initiative has enhanced its role as a cultural catalyst and its powerful connectivity to social media and digital platforms. Worldwide traffic to MTV digital has jumped 84% since the launch of Always On in April and MTV is more deeply building Always On into the on air viewing experience with even more original short form content and real time programming stunts. MTV is at its best and it looks nothing like any other network on television and this is increasingly true with Always On.
As it connects with its audience in new ways, MTVs bring more programs to air testing a wide net across scripted and reality to build a robust rounded programming lineup. In the current quarter MTV returns several hit scripted series, including Awkward, and Faking It. Looking into next quarter MTV will debut Eye Candy, its first ever scripted crime drama, starring Victoria Justice, a homegrown talent at Viacom.
On the reality front, the current quarter will see new, reinvented versions of Catfish and The Real World the latter of which was rejuvenated last season thanks to a radical format shift. We'll also bring back Ridiculousness, which continues to be a stalwart high margin series for the network.
Later in 2015, MTV will widen its creative aperture even further with the scripted fantasy series Shannara, which starts production in February in New Zealand. The newly green-lit series Scream, based on the popular film franchise will also make its debut next year.
Comedy Central is also reinventing its brand experience to meet changing consumer behavior. The network had its biggest year ever in overall video delivery. Its more than 1.8 billion video views across non linear platforms in fiscal 2014. On the Comedy Central App, users are spending an average of 22 minutes per visit.
Comedy Central is driving its cross platform consumption with the biggest original content push in its history from Key and Peele which is currently in its fourth hit season to the forthcoming The Minority Report with Larry Wilmore from John Stewart's Busboy Productions which will surely extend the network's run of success in late night.
Nickelodeon is also launching more new programming than ever before. The network has launched six new series since August and will launch five more through the end of the March quarter. One of these series 100 Things To Do Before High School, premiered as a TV movie earlier this week and ranked number one in its time period across all television with key kid and tween demos. Nickelodeon's increased volume is feeding linear television and also the networks expensive digital presence and strong consumer products business.
Following the tremendous success of the Emmy Award Winning Nick App, which already has 11 million downloads globally, Nickelodeon will soon launch a Nick Jr App which will be populated by Nick Jr power house content and characters and also include authentic on demand episodes and live streaming of the Nick Jr channel. We're certain that our pre-school content will thrive in the app environment.
In consumer products, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remains the number one boy’s action property. In fact, the toy line captured 29% of the boy’s action market in August following the successful release of the Paramount film. Nickelodeon is currently the number one rating network with kids 2 to 11 and has a branded ecosystem that is delivering more original content across platforms, powering great consumer products.
VH1 launched two new hits in the September quarter, Dating Naked and Candidly Nicole, both of which connected with audiences and will return for the second season. In the current quarter, the network extended its VH1 original movie franchise with Drumline, A New Beat, which drew in 2.4 million of viewers in its premier making it a number one non-sports telecast on cable for the night.
And in early 2015, VH1 will debut Hindsight, a new scripted series with broad appeal. VH1 continues to strengthen the competitive foothold it has in scripted programming over competitors like E and Bravo.
SPIKE is also bolstering its offering for renewal programming. The current quarter is the first in which the network has five nights of original programming and it continues develop exciting deeply engaging non-scripted series with great talent. Bar Rescue and Ink Master continue to anchor the network and perform well.
Early next we'll see the debut of Coaching Bad, hosted Ray Lewis, and Framework, hosted by actor and musician Common. These series gives SPIKE a great platform to venture into scripted programming next year with the ambitious event series Tut, starring Sir Ben Kingsley and several other exciting projects in development with production partners, including Pierce Brosnan and Gary Oldman.
We also launched the SPIKE App in September, and announced recently that SPIKE is going international launching in the UK in 2015. SPIKE is a brand with high upside and is expanding creatively and operationally in way that’s unprecedented for the network.
Moving on to our international networks, our acquisition of Channel 5 in the UK is complete and we are already making great progress in connecting the network to our portfolio and strengthening its great programming line up. Both Nickelodeon and MTV UK have joint productions in progress with Channel 5 and Nickelodeon series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Paw Patrol, and Zack & Quack are airing on Channel 5 with SpongeBob to join the lineup in the next few weeks. In this weekend, Bellator will also began airing on Five Star.
When SPIKE launches in the UK it will join the Channel 5 portfolio of channels and combine US content with UK reality series such as Police Interceptors and Cowboy Builders.
This week the European Music Awards aired live to a 166 countries from Glasgow. The show which also aired live on Channel 5 achieved its biggest audience ever in the UK and has emerged as a popular and high profitable cross border and cross platforms tent pole in markets with early audience information aggregate ratings are up 17% over last year and page views on the EMA side were up 63%.
Narrowing the growing engagement we are seeing elsewhere, traffic coming from mobile and tablets were significantly higher this year and for the first time accounted for over half of all visitors.
We continue to grow and expand our business around the world. We significantly broadened our presence in Africa in the September quarter both gaining increased distribution for MTV and launching Nick Jr, Nicktoons, and BET International in South Africa. Viacom now delivers more television channels than any other international programmer on the continent and we are well positioned to capitalize on the progress of the African market.
More recently, we expanded distribution for Comedy Central Asia in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands and this week we'll launch the Paramount channel in Latin America. And in India, the worlds second largest country with a population growing at rate 50% higher than the US, our Viacom 18 joint venture, including our leading broadcast network Colors continues to add new networks and to thrive and grow. Our international networks business will be a driver of significantly growth for Viacom for many, many years to come.
Moving on to Filmed Entertainment, Paramount pictures successfully launched a new tent pole franchise with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in August which has earned more than $465 million at the global box office, including more than $50 million in China.
Last weekend, Interstellar opened big, with more than $130 million worldwide debuting a number one in nearly every international market. Also to come in the current quarter, is Chris Rock's Top Five, which Paramount acquired after beating out several competitors at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. The Gambler from director Rupert Wyatt, which features a great dramatic turn for Mark Wahlberg; and the Martin Luther King Jr drama, Selma
Looking into 2015, Paramount Animation hits theaters with its first feature films, SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob Out of Order and Monster Trucks. Our Epix joint venture continues to gain more distribution and significantly grow its operating income as it prepares to add high quality original programming produced by Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM beginning at the end of 2015.
On the television production side, Paramount television has been steadily growing and creating a diversified portfolio of projects and partners working with distributors across network, cable, premium cable and digital platforms and collaborating with highly successful producers, directors and writers such as Jerry Bruckheimer Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Robert Zemeckis.
Its recently sold projects include School of Rock for Nickelodeon, Grease Live, and a based on Tom Cruise hit, Minority Report, for Fox and Raven Rock for NBC.
To close, we are excited about our growth opportunities. We remain committed to growing our business by investing more and more original content, in more and more formats and seizing on the opportunities created by new platforms and global markets.
We are innovating in how we connect marketers with our audiences as we work toward better measurements and monetization. We are proactively partnering with existing and emerging distributors alike as they grow their services and bring new products to market.
We are expanding our business around the world, betting bit on the potential of growing international markets. We are investing in new growth businesses, including mobile, television production, film animation, Epix and emerging international markets. As we do, we will continue to delver results, create significant value and return substantial capital to shareholders.
Now, I'll turn it over to Wade.
Wade C. Davis - Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development
Thanks, Philippe. Before I take you through our operating results, I want to note that our earnings release and web presentation summarizing the results for our September quarter are available on our website.
Now let's take a look at our segment results. At our Media Networks segment, revenues in the quarter were up 8% compared with the prior year. Domestic revenues were up 6%, while international revenues grew 23%. Page 10 of our web deck provides a breakdown of our Media Networks revenue performance.
In terms of advertising, worldwide revenues were down 2% in the quarter. Domestic revenues were down 5% and international revenues increased 33%. The growth in international advertising reflects the acquisition of Channel 5 which closed on September 10.
The impact of new channels, as well as continued improvement in the European marketplace, excluding Channel 5 the international advertising market grew high single digits.
In terms of affiliate revenues, domestic revenues were up 21% year-over-year, while international revenues were up 27%. Excluding the impact from the timing of product available under certain distribution agreements, domestic affiliate revenues grew high single digits in the quarter. The increase in international revenues was due to the timing of product available under certain distribution agreements, as well as new channel launches and increases in subscribers.
Expenses increased 11% in the quarter. Within operating expenses, programming expense grew 8%, while distribution and other expenses increased 42% year-over-year. SG&A expenses increased 9%. The increase in distribution and other expenses primarily reflects higher participations related to the timing of product available under certain distribution agreements. The SG&A expense was driven by higher advertising and promotion expenses related to original programming, as well expenses related to new international channels and Channel5.
Media Networks adjusted operating income was up 5%, while the adjusted operating income margin was 41%. The increase in adjusted operating income reflects higher affiliate revenues. The margin decline was driven by the 11% growth in expenses, partially offset by top line growth of 8%.
Moving to Filmed Entertainment. Revenues were up 12% in the quarter, due to an increase in theatrical revenues. Page 12 of the web presentation provides a breakdown of Filmed Entertainment revenues. Theatrical revenues increased 226%, reflecting the strong performance of our current quarter releases Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hercules, as wells as the carryover revenues from Transformers Age of Extinction which we released at the end of the June quarter. Home entertainment revenues declined 38%, primarily due to fewer current quarter releases.
Filmed Entertainment generated adjusted operating income of $213 million in the quarter as compared to $291 million last year. The prior years results, included the Margo distribution right sale.
Now touching on corporate. Expenses decreased $17 million in the quarter due to lower deferred compensation cost.
Moving to taxes. The full year adjusted effective tax rate was 31.4%, reflecting a 150 basis-point improvement as compared to the prior year. The reduction in the adjusted effective tax rate was driven by the increased deductions associated with domestic production, as well as the mix of domestic and international profitability.
With that, I would like to turn the call over to Tom.
Thomas E. Dooley - Chief Operating Officer
Thanks, Wade. And good morning, everyone. I'm going to touch on our full year results, as well as talk about our cash flow, our debt profile, and return of capital to our shareholders. I'll also cover the seasonal factors impacting our 2015 fiscal year.
Turning to the full year results. Media Networks generated revenue of $10.2 billion which is a 5% increase over the prior year. Adjusted operating income of $4.3 billion increased 4% over last year. Affiliate revenue grew 10% for the year and advertising revenue grew 2%.
Media Networks adjusted operating income margin was 42%. Filmed Entertainment generated revenue of $3.7 billion and adjusted operating income of $205 million or an operating margin of approximately 6%.
As Philippe mentioned, we generated full year adjusted diluted earnings per share of $5.40 which is an increase of 15%. We produced approximately $2.6 billion in operating free cash flow were $5.84 of free cash flow per share.
Also, we continue to return capital to our shareholders, for the full year, we repurchased approximately 41 million of our shares for an aggregate purchase price of $3.4 billion. Between our buyback and our dividend, we returned a total of nearly $4 billion to our shareholders, which is return on market capitalization of approximately 13%.
At the end of our fiscal year we had 414 million shares outstanding of those approximately 370 million are public hands, 10 million of A stock and 360 million of the B stock. As we restarted our buyback program four years ago, we have repurchased a total of 229 million of shares in the open market for an aggregate purchase price of $13.8 billion or at an average cost of $60 per share.
Now moving on to our debt, it remains principally fixed rate with an average cost at quarter end of 4.6%. In terms of our short-term funding, to the extent we had incremental borrowings, we are funding this in the commercial paper marketplace at an annual rate of approximately 25 basis points. The quarter end we had no variable rate borrowings.
In terms of our leverage, we ended the year with $12.8 billion of debt and capital leases outstanding. We had $1 billion of cash and cash equivalents, which reflects the payment for Channel 5 in September using offshore cash. Our leverage ratio at the end of the quarter was slightly under 3 times. At September 30, our $2.5 billion bank revolver was undrawn.
Now let's turn to some of the factors impacting fiscal 2015. In terms of advertising, for the full year the addition of channels for [inaudible] will increase worldwide Media Networks ad sales by approximately 10%. In terms of our affiliate revenue, we continued to see long-term annual growth in the high single-digit to low double-digit range.
However, quarterly affiliate revenue will fluctuate given the timing of transactions and the recognition of revenue related to certain distribution agreements, which are tied to product availability. For the December quarter, we anticipate that affiliate revenues will grow high single digits as compared to the prior year.
For the full year, we expect that organic growth rate for Media Networks programming expense will be in the high-single digits. However, the reported programming expense will grow in this high teens factoring in the acquisition of Channel 5. In terms of non-programming expense, we will continue to drive efficiencies throughout the organization in order to preserve and enhance our margins.
At Filmed Entertainment, we are excited about the upcoming slate, which includes SpongeBob and Monster Trucks, the first three leases from our animation label. We expect growth and profits to be weighted to the back half of the fiscal year as the studio benefits from their summer theatrical releases, as well as the availability of title ATV and Home Entertainment marketplaces.
For 2015 we are forecasting a book tax rate of 33%. We will refine this as we go through the year and get a better sense of the domestic versus international profitability mix. As for our stock buyback program, we expect to repurchase at lest $2.5 billion for fiscal 2015.
Looking ahead at Paramount's production and development pipeline, the studio is currently in production on Mission Impossible 5, Terminator Genesis, SpongeBob and a recently started production on Daddy's Home, which stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. They will soon begin production on Ben Hur, which is co-production with MGM and the studio is in development on sequels to Star Trek, G.I. Joe, World War Z, Zoolander, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In terms of TV production, Paramount has made great progress in a short period of time having already sold six projects through a combination of broadcast cable and Pay TV Networks. They currently have an additional six projects in development.
Wrapping up, our industry is evolving and consumers have more choices in ways to consume video content than ever before. As the industry continues to evolve, we are moving quicker to develop ways to monetize viewer ship where measurement is currently unavailable or does not adequately capture consumption.
Specialized products within our ad sales offering, like Viacom Velocity and Viacom Echo, as well as partnering with distributors to deliver targeted ads using dynamic ad insertion and first party data are some of the ways we are doing this.
In addition, new services and models for distribution are developing in the over the top end mobile areas that looked to leverage premium video content. We will adapt our existing content and create new content for these services. With these developments we see increasing ways to reach our audiences and new revenue streams which will enhance our long-term growth in subscription revenues.
In addition to these strategic initiatives, a core part of our philosophy has been to return excess capital to our shareholders. If you look at our buyback and dividend programs, as a percentage of market cap we continue to lead the industry in terms of capital returns.
Now I'd like to turn the call over to your questions. Operator?
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) [...]
We'll go next to Vasily Karasyov with Sterne Agee.
Vasily Karasyov - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division
Thank you. Good morning. Philippe about rating, my question is about ratings, I think in the past two, three years ago when Nickelodeon had a step down in ratings, you guys were willing to quantify what your thought was the impact of the Nielsen sample and different kinds of Nielsen measurement impact on that, partially through set top box data and some data from our distributors. I do know some of you distributors publicly did say that that data does not support the Nielsen ratings trajectory. Then I have a quick one on margins?
Philippe Dauman
Well, look, as far, where we're focused on at Nickelodeon is to continue to rollout new series. We've got – we're going to be rolling out three new live action series that this week we launched TV movie so one of them very successfully, 100 Things To Do Before High School and there are couple of others we're excited about.
So, we're just going to put our new programming, which by the way gets monetized in many, many ways besides advertising driven by the Nielsen ratings and we will continue to maintain our leading position in two to eleven. We will see improvement as we go forward and we're very confident that Nickelodeon continue last year in the US and above its going very nicely all over the world and is a real growth business for us for the very long time.
Vasily Karasyov - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division
Thank you. And on the margin front, on the networks, I think before the Channel5 acquisition the rule of thumb was that one could kind of done like 30 to 50 basis points margin expansion every fiscal year. So and this time fiscal time 2015 is a transition year once we left Channel 5, but can you give us a feeling as to what the margin trajectory will look like 2016 and beyond, can we still count on expansion? Thank you.
Thomas E. Dooley - Chief Operating Officer
Yes, we still believe that we will be able to get the margins that continue to grow in the range decided and we believe in that because we continue to have opportunities to operate the core businesses as more efficiently driven principally by technology and the application of that to both our programming to capture and our programming distribution.
Vasily Karasyov - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division
All right. Thank you, Tom.
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