PARIS (Thomson Financial) - French broadcaster M6 announced a 26.7 percent slump in first half net profit despite unchanged revenues as programming costs soared, largely due to the cost of screening the Euro 2008 soccer championships.
In a statement, the group said EBITA reached was 106.5 million euros, down 29.5 percent as programming costs increased by 48 million euros to 194.5 million, including 50 million for Euro 2008 broadcasting rights.
Excluding Euro 2008, the cost of programming decreased by 1.4 percent.
Net profit in the first half was 79.2 million euros, down from 108.1 million and sales were flat at 709.2 million, compared to 709.1 millin a year earlier.
Ad revenues at the core M6 channel were 365.0 million euros, up 0.6 percent from 367.1 million a year earlier as competition from digital terrestrial TV continued to weigh.
Non advertising revenues were 311.1 million euros, down 5.1 percent from 295.1 million.
Digital channels revenues jumped 27.9 percent, driven by W9 which saw its audience share in June almost double to 1.9 percent from a percent a year earlier.
The digital channels contributed 7.7 million euros to group EBITA, up 75 percent and W9 saw its first positive EBITA contribution at 3.0 million euros. matt.gil@thomsonreuters.com mrg/lam COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
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