Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman in a file photo
Media giant Viacom, the owner of cable networks such as Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and the family of MTV channels, reported better-than-expected quarterly profit as it recorded strong gains in advertising, affiliate and television license fees. Reuters

Viacom put up its video game developing unit for sale on Thursday, stating that it lacks the expertise to run the video game business.

The company put up Harmonix, the unit that developed the music video game Rock Band, for sale on Thursday, after reporting better-than-expected profit for the third quarter.

Harmonix has and will continue to create terrific video games, but for us, it is about focus, CEO Philippe Dauman said.

The console games business requires an expertise and scale that we don't have, so we have taken steps to sell Harmonix and we are in discussions with several potential buyers.

Rock Band allows players to simulate rock music songs and the game is scored based on the number of notes each person can duplicate.

Viacom's MTV contributed heavily to the company's profit during the quarter, along with its other cable channels such as Nickelodeon, VH1 and Comedy Central. But the video game unit lost money during the quarter.

Harmonix has released Rock Band 2 and 3, along with Rock Band Unplugged, and versions of the game based on The Beatles and Green Day since Viacom bought the company in 2006. The video game maker also released a game for iPods called Phase.

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