Moody's upgrades Viacom Inc, outlook stable

NEW YORK Oct 15 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service on Thursday upgraded Viacom Inc's VIA.N long-term and commercial paper ratings and said it is more confident in the media company's corporate governance practices and strengthening balance sheet.

Moody's raised the long-term rating by one notch to Baa2, raising it to two notches above speculative, or "junk" status.

The agency raised the company's commercial paper rating to prime-2 from prime-3. About $6 billion of debt is impacted, Moody's said in a statement.

Moody's said it has become more comfortable with Viacom's corporate governance, following its recent decision not to support its controlling shareholder, National Amusements Inc.

NAI recently decided to sell its nonvoting shares and some voting shares in Viacom to repay its debt although it will retain voting control of the company.

"Over the last year, the company's commitment to maintaining prudent financial policies has been put to test in the face of a very difficult financial squeeze at NAI and despite the loss of material net worth by Viacom's and NAI's Chairman, Sumner Redstone, Viacom has largely been left unscathed," said Neil Begley, Senior Vice President of Moody's Investors Service.

The agency also welcomed Viacom's decision to suspend a share buyback program to preserve liquidity and its efforts to reduce its debt-to-EBITDA -- earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization -- leverage in the short term.

The outlook is stable. (Reporting by Ciara Linnane; Editing by James Dalgleish)