Sanoma’s broadcasting operations outperformed a Finnish advertising market that shrunk by 13% in the nine months to September 2009.
Sales from broadcast operations totalled €64.5 million compared to €65.1m between January and September 2008.
The Nelonen Media division has been helped by new targeted TV channels and a newly launched WebTV service. Ruutu.fi was launched in June 2009 and is fast gaining popularity. It offers a catch-up TV service, extra materials on popular programmes and podcasts. Lifestyle channel Liv has been granted a one-year licence for the terrestrial network and transmissions begin in December.
In cable Saoma’s cable network Welho remained broadly stable, adding 4,000 homes to reach 326,000, while pay-TV subs fell back by 1,000 to 68,000.
Other operations, which include both Welho and Saoma’s multimedia games division, produced revenues of €52.4m from €51.5m in 2008.
