Viacom offers big promises, little mojo

Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish on Monday promised to unveil his turnaround plan for the ailing media giant in 72 hours — but investors seemed content to wait for the sizzle before jumping aboard the stock.

Viacom shares, after sprinting into positive territory in the first 30 minutes of trading, slipped into negative territory for most of the day, closing at $41.82, down 8 cents.

Shares have lagged the general market and Viacom peers over the last year.

Bakish — a Viacom vet who was named CEO in December amid a vicious power struggle at the media giant — told shareholders at the firm’s annual investor meeting in New York that he hopes to restructure the company and would address so-called “points of pain.”

The conglomerate — which operates TV channels including Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV, as well as the Paramount Pictures movie studio — reports quarterly results on Thursday. The company is controlled by the Redstone family, which owns 80 percent of the voting shares.

In recent weeks, Bakish has worked to get new-slate financing in place at Paramount, which is set to release another “Transformers” movie this year.

New cash for movies will come after a deal with Hua Hua Media and Shanghai Film Group to share the risk on new development.

At the cable networks, Bakish is using old favorites such as “Friends” to help draw viewers to newer shows on MTV.

“Other companies would kill for our brands,” he told shareholders in a quickie address.

Bakish is racing the clock as distributor agreements with cable operators Charter Communications and Altice are coming due in the next 12 months.