Pay TV boosts Mediaset revenues

Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset’s pay TV arm, Mediaset Premium, grew its revenues by 61.4% year-on-year to €342.5 million for the first nine months of the year.

The company had about 3.3 million active smartcards in circulation at the end of September (rising to 3.6 million as of November 4), compared with 2.9 million a year earlier.

Mediaset as a whole posted revenues of €3.046 billion, up 14.6% for the first nine months, and a net profit of €192.6 million, up 4.6%. In Italy, Publitalia’s advertising revenues grew by 5% to €1.915 billion, while in Spain revenues from commercial broadcaster Telecinco Group grew by 44% to €622.4 million. Telecinco’s net profit fell from €62.2 million to €32.2 million as a result of an impairment charge on the value of its stake in Endemol.

Mediaset confirmed its guidance that net profit and cash-flow for the full year would exceed that of 2009.