Moonves Upbeat At Deutsche Bank Conference

No Job Cuts Planned

Speaking at the DEUTSCHE BANK media conference CBS CEO LES MOONVES showed remarkable optimism, saying that the economy is pushing him to figure out how to make the business better and that "we are at the top of our game," reports CNBC. 

But there are still worries about ad sales -- MOONVES says his concerns about the upfronts is volume. Many analysts expect overall ad sales to drop by nearly 10% this year. So MOONVES is looking for clever ways to lock in budgets and offer advertisers across-the-board packages. Again optimistic, MOONVES said, "Eventually, they’re going to have to spend some money again. The only way out of this is to do some advertising."

Eventually, theyâ??re going to have to spend some money again. The only way out of this is to do some advertising.

When pressed about additional job cuts, MOONVES indicated there was no additional fat to trim.

MOONVES says that he thinks of CBS not just as a content company but also as a distribution company and that the next form of distribution is the Internet.

Many would say that media conglomerates are wise to distribute through a range of new pipelines other than their own, but CBS is determined to own the distribution as well. MOONVES boasted about the company being #7 online thanks to its acquisition of CNET. The question remains whether that platform can justify the company's $1.8 billion price tag.

As to the company slashing its dividend yield, MOONVES won't let investors forget that it's still yielding over 5%, making it the highest-yielding media company. But its stock and market cap is still just a fraction of its competitors -- CBS stock now trading less than $4.

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