Central European Media Enterprises (CME) revenues – owner of Romanian Pro TV – are down $30M in Q1 2013, compared to the same period last year. The decline was slower in Romania than in other countries where the company is active. As a matter of fact, Romania became the most profitable for CME, with the highest revenues in the region after the steep decrease posted by Czech CME operations.

Net revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2013 were US$ 137.0 million compared to US$ 167.4 million for the same period in 2012. OIBDA1 for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was US$ (20.7) million compared to US$ 14.1 million for the first quarter in 2012. Operating loss for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was US$ 35.0 million compared to US$ 10.3 million in 2012.
Net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 was US$ 109.0 million compared to US$ 13.8 million for the same period in 2012. Fully diluted loss per share for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was US$ 1.22 compared to US$ 0.21 for three months ended March 31, 2012.

In Romania, CME operates Pro TV, Pro TV Internaţional, Acasă TV, Pro Cinema, Acasă Gpşd, Sport.ro, MTV România, Pro TV Chişinău and Acasă Moldova. CME’s TV operations in Romania attracted, in Q1, net income of $23M, Romania being the country that attracted highert revenues from all CME countries.

The increase of advertising prices and of the prices demanded by cable companies generated different reactions from media companies and advertising clients. Czech companies – the country that previously generated the highest revenues for CME in CEE – had radical reactions, reason why the revenues went down $20M in this country.

Adrian Sarbu, President and Chief Executive Officer of CME, commented: "2013 is a year of bold actions to restore the value we receive for our products. We raised advertising prices and carriage fees. The first quarter results reflect the initial phase of implementing these actions. While successful in most of our countries, we met some resistance from certain media agencies and advertisers in the Czech Republic where consumption of GRPs declined, impacting our revenues and OIBDA. Our pricing actions in the Czech Republic and across our region will continue as we are determined to reverse the trend of declining TV advertising spending. The proceeds we look to raise from the equity offerings announced today will enable us to further execute our strategy and deleverage. Post transaction we expect to have the resources in place to accomplish our main goal: growing CME."

CME’s net revenues (In USD) in the countries the company is present are available here.

Translation provided by AdHugger