Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset posted a 36% drop in fiscal 2011 net profit to €225 million, mainly caused by a sharp drop in advertising income.
Total revenue of the private broadcaster fell 1% to €4.25 billion.
The parent company Mediaset S.p.A. ended the year with a net profit of €156.3 million, compared with the €213 million of 2010.
Advertising sales by Publitalia for Mediaset’s channels including sales for digital pay-TV channels and the video content distributed by the Mediaset.it website amounted to €2,771.0 million, compared with €2,865.9 million in 2010 (-3.3%).
However, Mediaset’s pay-TV business Mediaset Premium ended the year with revenues up 14.1%, reaching €615.6 million.
In Spain, gross television advertising revenues at Publiespana rose to €971.5 million, an increase of 22.7% on the €791.8 million of 2010.
In a statement, the broadcaster said “The Group’s results in 2011 obviously reflect the difficult international economic situation. In this context, however, the Mediaset Group confirmed the best performance in TV advertising sales, consolidated its market share and maintained its ratings leadership in the commercial targets of reference.”
