TF1 REVS UP BUT PROFITS DOWN
In a statement, released on Tuesday, TF1 said revenues had risen 6% to $1.6 billion despite the morose economic situation in France that was felt particularly hard in the fourth quarter.
Ad revenues, which are the bread and butter of TF1's income, rose just 1.1% to $1.3 billion, while programming costs were up 4.5% at $790 million.
Despite the slow ad market, TF1's diversification strategy, which now includes a thriving video distribution arm, music publishing, teleshopping and a fledgling mail order catalog biz, is paying off. Revenues from diversification leapt 26% to $396 million.
With little sign that the French ad market will show the kind of double-digit percentage increases of the late 1980s, TF1 chairman Patrick Le Lay has ordered costs to be held down in 1997 and recently told Daily Variety that the programming budget would not increase this year and could be frozen again in 1998.
