T.V advertising market hurting too.

ITV says unclear when TV ad downturn will end

LONDON/FRANKFURT: Two of Europe's biggest commercial free-to-air television broadcasters, ITV and ProSiebenSat.1 , said on Wednesday they had no idea when a downturn in advertising spending would end.
Both ITV and Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 beat market expectations with their interim results but their lack of ability to predict the future development of the advertising markets that are their lifeblood sent their shares tumbling.
ITV forecast a 20 percent drop in ad sales in September and a 17 percent drop for the market. Analysts said the prediction was worse than the steep drop they had already expected from last September, when Britain hosted rugby World Cup tournament games.
"We've seen a level of volatility in September that we haven't seen before," Executive Chairman Michael Grade told journalists on a conference call. "We have no visibility beyond September on the advertising market."
ProSiebenSat.1 initially cheered investors by sticking to its full-year target of broadly flat core earnings "despite difficulties in the German market".
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/08/06/business/OUKBS-UK-BROADCASTERS-EUROPE.php



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