Niche Channels Buck Tv Ad Trend

German niche channels were the only ones to show growth in advertising revenue in 2002, as the overall ad market slumped.

Broadcasters saw gross advertising revenue fall 4%, or €304 million ($322 million), to €7.06 billion ($7.49 billion) last year, according to a survey released Thursday by research group Spot-Control TV Spot Medien.

Hardest hit were the ProSiebenSat.1 network of channels controlled by bankrupt KirchMedia and Germany pubcasters ARD and ZDF.

ProSieben booked €1.43 billion ($1.51 billion) in advertising sales last year, a €73 million ($77 million) drop.

Sat.1's ad sales slipped €45 million ($47.5 million) to €1.41 billion ($1.48 billion).

Ad spending at the pubcasters was down by €77 million ($81 million) year-on-year, with ZDF bringing in €152 million ($160 million) and ARD earning €35 million ($37 million) through selling spots.

Market leader RTL again topped the ad revenue list, generating €2.1 billion ($2.2 billion), but that figure was still €23 million ($24 million) short of the channel's 2001 total.

Bucking the downward trend were smaller specialty channels. MTV Germany upped its ad take by €15 million ($16 million) to €128 million ($135 million). The Viacom subsidiary last year overtook local competitor VIVA to regain the No. 1 spot among German music TV stations.

Another niche winner was VOX. The Cologne-based channel, controlled by European broadcaster RTL Group, successfully targeted young women with shows such as "Ally McBeal" and "Dark Angel" to boost its market share from around 3% to 4.7% by year's end. The effort paid off. VOX's ad revenue jumped 12% to €332 million ($350 million) in 2002.

The only other German station to show revenue growth last year was all-sports channel DSF, which saw a 4% increase to €181 million ($191 million).