CME posts strong Q3 results

CME’s underlying profits more than doubled year-on-year in Q3, with the European broadcast group reporting a rise this year in ad revenues, subscriptions and carriage fees.

Announcing its third quarter results, Central European Media Enterprises said that operating income before depreciation and amortisation (OIBDA) came in at US$18 million, compared to US$8.35 million a year earlier.

This continues the transformational story at CME, whose largest shareholder is US giant Time Warner, following a period in which many media businesses in the central and eastern European region saw revenues slidding away. CME co-CEO Michael Del Nin said in April that the firm was “positioned for growth” after completing a “turnaround phase” the year before.

For the first nine months of the year, CME said that TV ad revenues increased nearly 5% at constant rates, which included growth in the three largest markets, the Czech Republic, Romania and the Slovak Republic.

Over the same period, carriage fees and subscription revenues increased 8%, which CME said was primarily due to subscriber growth, better channel offerings and new channel launches.

“These results are, on a relative basis, arguably the best we have seen all year,” said Del Nin.

“Due to the combination of robust revenue growth and effective cost control, we’ve more than doubled OIBDA in the quarter compared to the same period in 2015.”

Del Nin added that the results will keep CME “well on track” to deliver an “excellent financial performance” for full year 2016.

For the quarter, net revenues increased 8% year-on-year to US$126.7 million.

Operating income decreased 71% at constant rates to US$8.4 million in the quarter, but was up 25% in the first nine months of the year to US$60 million.

“Our results today reflect not just an improvement in profitability, but also better engagement with our audiences as the gap between us and our closest commercial competitor widened in five out of six markets during the third quarter,” said co-CEO Christoph Mainusch.

“We believe we continue to provide the most efficient medium for advertisers to reach consumers in all countries in which we operate.”