Alma Media's profits down

Fall being blamed on the collapse of print exports

By MARLENE EDMUNDS

AMSTERDAM -- Profits rose at MTV3, the broadcast division of Alma Media, as Finland's newest media conglomerate posted its first full year results.

But the collapse of the Russian ruble drove down profits for the Alma group as a whole, and the merger in April 1998 that forged Alma Media out of Finnish commercial broadcaster MTV3 and Aamulehti Corp., Finland's second largest publisher, "cost MTV3 on the whole," admitted an Alma spokesman.

Net revenues for Alma edged up slightly from FIM 2.7 billion ($515 million) in 1997 to $531 million in 1998, but net profits dipped to $30.7 million in 1998, down from $43.5 million a year earlier. The fall is being blamed on a spillover effect from the collapse of the ruble on Alma's print exports.

Oddly enough, the addition of new competitor Channel 4 (Nelonen) to the media landscape in Finland was both a blessing and a curse in the end was a boost to Alma's broadcast division's operating profits.

Net sales for MTV3 declined by 1% to $202 million due to increased competition from Channel 4, which drove down the prices of advertising. At the same time, MTV3 paid lower fees for rental of the frequencies because Channel 4 split part of the rental costs. The situation ended with the broadcasting division of Alma posting an operating profit of $20.9 million, up from $18.1 million a year earlier.