MTV and Harmonix parent company Viacom has said that the economics of its Rock Band franchise “are improving, though not as quickly as we’d like”.

Speaking in a financial results call, CFO Tom Dooley said that the franchise made a negative contribution to margins in the third quarter.

“We expect it to break even or be slightly profitable in the fourth quarter from a margin point of view. It really depends on how many units we sell in the holiday season. That’s what we’re building the business for. The economy has made it tough but we’re out there and we think we’re being very competitive in the space and it really depends, literally on the next three to six weeks.”

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said that the global launch of The Beatles: Rock Band was “the big news for the quarter”.

“The Beatles: Rock Band eclipsed the competition in its first month on the market… As we enter the all important holiday season, we are reaching out beyond the core gamer audience to first time buyers and passionate music fans… At this time of year we await the holiday season to begin as the month of November unfolds so we will start putting more marketing dollars together with our retailing partners behind that product.

“We also expect to see continued growth in our downloadable content business. The Beatles music as well as the hundreds of other songs we have available for Rock Band. We now have more than 900 songs available for download and that number will expand to 1,000 by year-end. Consumers have paid for more than 60 million downloads to date.”

For the third quarter ended September 30, Viacom revenues declined three per cent year-on-year to $3.32 billion. Net earnings jumped from $401 million to $463 million, while operating income rose 14 per cent to $784 million.

The firm's Media Networks division, which houses MTV Games, saw revenues largely unchanged from the third quarter of the previous year at $2.12 billion, while operating income was up two per cent to $773 million.

A transcript of Viacom’s earnings call is available from Seeking Alpha.