'Soft' TV advertising pulls CanWest down

By SIMON HENDERY media writer

TV3 and TV4 owner CanWest has joined TVNZ in blaming the soft television advertising market for a recent revenue slump.

Canadian-based CanWest Global Communications said TV3 and TV4 lost $C2.8 million ($4.4 million) in the six months to the end of February. During the same period last year the two companies made a combined profit of $C3.7 million.

Revenue for the six months was down from $C37.9 million last year to $C29.1 million.

CanWest's New Zealand managing director of television operations, Rick Friesen, said the difficult advertising market was a reflection of general economic uncertainty.

In its half-year report, released three weeks ago, Television New Zealand said advertising revenue fell during the second half of last year. The state-owned broadcaster did not give figures but said the soft advertising market conditions were expected to continue into this year and would affect its full-year result.

TVNZ has said it will lose a "significant amount" of revenue as a result of its decision to pull infomercials off TV One.

TVNZ has recently run prime-time advertisements on its own network touting for advertisers.

CanWest's New Zealand chief executive, Brent Impey, said the radio advertising market was in better shape and he was pleased with the six-month performance of the group's radio interests, which include the More FM, Radio Pacific, Rock, Edge and Solid Gold networks.

Radio operating profits for the six months dropped from $C8.8 million to $C8 million. Mr Impey said that in NZ dollar terms, the result was a 6.7 per cent rise in operating profit.