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Viacom quarterly profit rises 4 percent


    (Reuters) - Viacom Inc , which owns cable networks MTV and Comedy Central, reported a 4 percent rise in quarterly profit as increased advertising revenue from its cable business offset weakness in its film entertainment division.

    Net income from continuing operations attributable to the company rose to $502 million, or $1.13 per share, in the second quarter, from $481 million, or 96 cents per share, a year earlier.

    Viacom, which owns movie studio Paramount Pictures, earned $1.08 per share, excluding items.

    Revenue rose to $3.17 billion from $3.14 billion for the quarter ended March.

    Viacom also said it would buy British public service broadcaster Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd for 450 million pounds ($760 million) from media baron Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell Media Group.

    ($1 = 0.5922 British Pounds)

    (Reporting by Soham Chatterjee and Mridhula Raghavan in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)