Half-Year Profit Up at TF1

PARIS: France’s TF1 reported a 79-percent gain in first-half operating profit, as advertising revenue was up yet programming costs were down.

Operating profit reached 186.5 million euros, up from 104.4 million euros reported for the first half of 2010. Net profit attributable to the group came to 118.6 million euros for the first half of 2011, compared with 74.2 million euros for the same period in 2010.

Advertising revenue was 905.2 million, up 4.7 percent on 2010’s 864.9 million. On the main TF1 channel, net advertising revenue was 757.8 million, down slightly from the 764.6 reported for the year ago’s period.

Group sales at TF1 dropped slightly (0.5 percent) to 1.28 billion euros, hurt by the comparison to 2010’s boost from the World Cup.

TF1 channel programming costs for H1 2011 were 423.6 million euros, down from the 482.6 million euros from H1 2010. The 12-percent reduction in programming costs was due to the 49.3 million euros of savings in rights costs from the World Cup and to savings of 9.7 million euros on other programs.

The French broadcasting activities delivered revenues of 1.06 billion euros for the half-year, a gain for 2010’s 1.04 billion euros half-year revenues. At the audiovisual rights segment, revenues fell to 50.1 million euros from 2010’s reported 60 million euros. Eurosport International delivered revenues of 173.8 million euros in the international broadcasting segment, down from the year prior’s 181.2 million euros.