Despite the continuing advertising slump and the costs of covering the war US media giant Viacom, owners of both MTV and VH1 as well as US cable giant CBS and Paramount Pictures, have announced they are back in profit - after making a £710m loss last year they have just posted a £293m profit.
The announcement was followed up by the news that Viacom will buy out struggling entertainment giant AOL Time Warner's stake in Comedy Central - the US based comedy channel most famous for giving birth to South Park - which was a joint venture between the groups. This means Viacom now wholly owns the two big comedy channels - Comedy Central and Paramount.
UK media commentators are speculating the group's good fortunes will put them in a strong position if and when the government's upcoming communications act allows foreign ownership of UK broadcasters. Viacom have already stressed an interest in buying into ITV when media ownership legislation allows.