NEWS
Big increase in DTT advertising in France, while it falls in the analogical ones
Advertising income from the main French DTT channels rose 63% in April against same month in 2008, while income from this source has dropped for the analogical ones.
Yacast the agency which supervises DTT channels in France, indicated the 10 most important digital channels in the country registered income of 374.7 million euros gross in the first quarter, 69% more than the same period last year.
While advertising increases in DTT, the analogical channels start feeling the effects of few advertisers.
TF1, absolute audience leader reported an operational loss between 10 and 15 million euros essentially linked to the 27% drop in their advertising income. In addition to the advertising market freeze, the channel has suffered a big drop in audience, which has been falling 18 months successively.
However, their main rivals among private channels, M6, is also noticing a fall in the advertising market, which means 11% less income for the channel.
To explain their economic problems in part, the private analogical channels point at the tax on their advertising turnover adopted at the beginning of the year to finance the public ones, grouped in the consortium "France Télevisions".
With this tax, the government aims to compensate the lack of advertising income for state channels, and private ones slowly eliminating advertising until it disappears at the end of 2011.
The private channels also complain about the maximum time extension of commercial breaks from 6 to 9 minutes per hour, thus giving advertisers greater negotiating power.
