Poor Rock Band Sales Blamed For Declining Viacom RevenuesS

Viacom's second quarter 2009 financials dropped this morning, singling out lower than expected Rock Band sales as one of the primary causes of the company's 14% drop in revenue over the previous year.

A little over a year ago Viacom was singing the praises of Rock Band, heralding the rhythm game as the driving force behind a 33% profit increase during the first quarter of 2008. Cut to a year later, and Rock Band is once again a focus, but not in such a positive way. The company's second quarter 2009 financial results report a 14% decline in revenues and a 26% decline in operating income. In both cases, slow sales of Rock Band are listed as a key factor in the losses, driving down the company's Media Networks segment's operating income by 12% and revenues by 8%.

The Media Network revenue drop to $1.97 billion is listed as being "principally due to a 41% decline in ancillary revenues driven by lower sales of the music video game Rock Band."

If Rock Band alone can have that big of a positive or negative effect on the company's financials, it sounds like there are too many rhythm-based eggs rocking out in that one basket there.