Advertising revenues at Eurosport have been hit by the poor state of European economy. Eurosport International saw its advertising revenues fall by 17.3% to €11 million in the first quarter. This combined with programming costs for the Africa Cup of Nations contributed to a €4.7 million fall in operating profits to €3.5 million.
By the end of March, Eurosport was being received in 129.6 million households, a 5 million increase on March 2011.
Paying subscribers also increased by 5.2% on the year, mainly driven by Eastern Europe and the UK.
Growth for Eurosport 2 channel of 7.6 million new subscribers came from Eastern Europe and Turkey. At end March 2012, Eurosport 2 was being received in 58.3 million households.
The Eurosport HD channel continued to expand, attracting 4.6 million new subscribers in the first quarter of 2012.
It was the continued growth in subscription revenues that helped overall revenues creep up 1.3% to €85.6 million.
Meanwhile, Eurosport France recorded strong growth in its subscriber base, standing at 8.3 mllion.
A major factor was the opening up of the channel to distribution by internet service providers (SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Orange) following the end of CanalSat exclusivity.
