Pay TV boosts Mediaset revenues
Italian commercial broadcaster Mediasets pay TV arm, Mediaset Premium, grew its revenues by 61.4% year-on-year to Â342.5 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 Â3.046 billion, up 14.6% for the first nine months, and a net profit of Â192.6 million, up 4.6%. In Italy, PublitaliaÂs advertising revenues grew by 5% to Â1.915 billion, while in Spain revenues from commercial broadcaster Telecinco Group grew by 44% to Â622.4 million. TelecincoÂs net profit fell from Â62.2 million to Â32.2 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.