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Niche Channels Buck Tv Ad Trend

By Scott Roxborough
Publication: The Hollywood Reporter
Date: Friday, January 17 2003
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).

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