Expanding Scandi B'casting revs up
Bigger ad spending, stronger market credited
Second-quarter revs jumped to $97 million, up from the 1997 figure of $60.8 million. Station operating cash flow skyrocketed to $15.2 million from a meager $1.5 million a year ago.
Harry Evans Sloan, chairman and CEO of SBS, told Daily Variety the numbers were up because SBS channels "are taking a larger share of the ad spend in each of the seven markets we operate in." The channels were also piggybacking "off of the strong growth in European television," he added.
SBS has stakes in channels in Scandinavia, the Benelux, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, and plans soon to launch into Switzerland. In tandem with its continued channel launchings across Europe, the company has embarked on a major streamlining and synergizing operation across all of its channels which Sloan also credits with pumping up figures. He predicts 1999 could bring SBS close to break even.
Half-year figures showed SBS revs climbing from $108.5 million in the first six months of 1997 to $166.6 million in the same time period this year. Net losses, however, also increased from $12.6 million to $14 million in the first six months of 1998.
