Losses jump at TV3 but ‘storm weathered’

Annual losses at independent broadcaster TV3 jumped by nearly 4% last year from €6.77m to €7.04m.

As well as the total loss figure, the Ballymount-based broadcaster’s group results — which were published yesterday and cover both the main TV3 station and its sister channel, 3e — show that the company generated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €5.8m last year and operating profits (after exceptional items) of €1.4m.

That was despite expenditure associated with a new trading scheme and costs associated with the new Sony high-definition studio.

The earnings figure represented a 5.45% increase on the previous year, when EBITDA of €5.5m was generated. Last year’s operating profit marked an improvement of over 55%, meanwhile, with the €1.4m figure rising from 900,000 in 2011.

Although down by 1.8% on the previous year, group revenues — €58.6m versus €57.6m — still outperformed the broader advertising market, which was down by 9%.

TV3 Group chief executive, David McRedmond said that 2012 and the first half of this year saw “the most difficult trading environment for advertising”, but that the company had weathered the storm with increased earnings and revenue outperformance.

Management said that while the severe market weakness continued into the first half of the current year, there has been improvement in the second half and the group has traded in line with expectations.