Central European Media Enterprises (CME) remains upbeat about its future prospects despite another difficult quarter.
The latest set of results published by the company, which has TV interests in six CEE markets, show that its net revenues for Q2 were $180.2 million (€135.9 million), compared to $211.2 million in the same period last year.
OIBDA was meanwhile down from $47.1 million to $7 million over the same period and a net income of $3.1 million transformed into a net loss of $41.1 million.
Of particular concern would have been the company’s performance in the Czech Republic, for many years its most lucrative market.
There, net revenues in Q2 amounted to $45,690,000, compared to $76,853,000 in the same period in 2012.
OIBDA slumped from $31,403,000 to $171,000 over the same period.
Commenting on the results, Adrian Sarbu, the company’s president and CEO, said: “ In the first half of 2013 we stood firm on the execution of our strategy. We secured double digit TV advertising price increases in the Czech Republic and single digit increases in the other countries on commitments signed. We raised carriage fees in Romania and Bulgaria which for the coming years are expected to more than double compared to 2012. We also repurchased €206 million of debt with proceeds from our successful equity offerings during the quarter. Our products are performing better than last year.
“Looking back, lower revenues in the Czech Republic impacted our financial results in the second quarter and first half of 2013 as certain key advertisers have only recently accepted our higher prices.
“Looking forward, we expect the declining trend of TV advertising spending to reverse in the fall of 2013 building on our pricing initiatives. We believe the successful execution of our strategy puts the Company back on the path to growth in 2014.”
