Altice cable deal gives Viacom shares much-needed boost

Sumner Redstone just got an early 94th birthday present.

Viacom, the media giant controlled by the mogul and his family, reached a deal Thursday to remain on Altice’s 2.41 million-household cable systems, both companies said in a statement.

The news removed a major overhang on Viacom’s shares, given fears that the media conglomerate’s brands — including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central — could be dropped as its deal comes up for renewal next year.

The nonagenarian celebrates his birthday May 27.

Viacom’s Class B shares jumped 4.5 percent Thursday afternoon in the 10 minutes following the announcement of the deal.

As part of the agreement, Viacom agreed to use the services of Audience Partners, Altice USA’s audience data company, to help it sell advertising not only in the cable company’s Metro New York footprint but also nationally.

Viacom will also pool its own advertising data as part of the venture.

Altice owns the former Cablevision systems as well as Suddenlink in Missouri. The Netherlands-based firm said earlier this week it would rebrand all systems with the Altice name.

One question not answered in the afternoon announcement of the deal is just how many Viacom channels will stay on Altice’s basic systems and how many will be moved to premium tiers.

At Suddenlink, Viacom channels have been absent since they were dropped in 2014. Under the new deal, an unspecified number of them will return.

Neither Viacom nor Altice disclosed whether the deal included an increase in affiliate fees paid to Viacom. Chief Executive Bob Bakish has said he is focusing resources against a select group of channels including what is termed its “flagship six” — MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Comedy Central, BET and Paramount.