OIBDA increased 36% in the second quarter, to $62.49 million, from $46.19 million. Net income for the quarter improved to $0.8 million, compared to a loss of US$52.9 million for the second quarter of 2010, says a press release issued Wednesday by the company.
“Our Revenues and OIBDA increased 24% and 36% respectively. This improvement was driven by our strong brands, leading audience shares in broadcasting and fast growth in Media Pro Entertainment and New Media divisions. Our operations performed better than advertising markets which in Q2 contracted by 3%. However, based on continuing improvements in macroeconomic indicators, we foresee a growth trend in all our TV advertising markets in the second half of the year. We are best positioned in the region to take advantage of this trend and deliver growth in Revenues, OIBDA and free cash flow,” said Adrian Sarbu, president and CEO of CME, cited in the press release.
Analysts queried by Reuters forecast net revenues of $234 million.
CME’s Broadcast segment reported revenues of $228.96 million in the second quarter, up 20.1% from $190.58 million in the same period of last year. Consolidated OIBDA climbed 25% on this segment, to $76.11 million, from $60.87 million.
Media Pro Entertainment’s net revenue in the quarter was $51.25 million, up 33.8%, and its consolidated OIBDA was $761,000, almost five times higher than in the second quarter of 2010.
On the New Media segment, the group posted net revenues of $4.61 million, up 57.5% from $2.92 million in the second quarter of 2010. The segment’s losses dropped to $489,000 from $1.42 million.
CME’s net revenues for the first six months of 2011 increased by 22.3% to $422.4 million from $345.4 million in the first half of 2010, says the press release. OIBDA increased to $76.9 million from $47 million.
The Broadcast segment’s revenue in the first half-year was $386.48 million, up 18.6% from $326 million in the same period of last year. OIBDA for the segment climbed 30%, to $102.26 million from $78.68 million.
Media Pro Entertainment posted revenue of $91.43 million, up 37.8%, and consolidated OIBDA of $1.48 million, compared to a loss of $1.87 million in the first half of 2010.
The New Media segment’s revenue increased by more than 46%, to $7.23 million and reduced its losses by 56.5% to just over $2 million.
The group’s revenue on the Romanian broadcast segment increased 8% in the second quarter, compared to the same period of 2010, to $47 million. CME’s operational profit on the Romanian market was $9.29 million. In April-June 2010, CME’s broadcasting division posted $43.56 million in net revenues on the Romanian market and consolidated OIBDA of $10.74 million.
The net revenue of CME’s Romanian broadcasting division climbed 1.5% in the first six months of the year, to $81.3 million, from $80.1 million, while consolidated OIBDA dropped to $12.74 million, from $15.27 million.
CME is a vertically integrated media company operating a leading broadcast, content and new media business in six Central and Eastern European countries with an aggregate population of approximately 50 million people.
CME’s television stations are located in Bulgaria (bTV, bTV Cinema, bTV Comedy, bTV Action and Ring.bg), Croatia (Nova TV, Doma and Nova World), the Czech Republic (TV Nova, Nova Cinema, Nova Sport and MTV Czech), Romania (PRO TV, PRO TV International, Acasa, PRO Cinema, PRO TV Chisinau, Sport.ro and MTV Romania), the Slovak Republic (TV Markíza and Doma) and Slovenia (POP TV, Kanal A and POP Brio).
CME is traded on the NASDAQ and the Prague Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CETV.”