Mediaset closed the first quarter with a Net income consolidated amount of 3,5 million euros, a decrease of 78% compared to the 15,8 million recorded in the same period last year.
The net profit achieved for a few million euros in the first quarter, comments the company, is in any case "a significant signal in a period that suffers from a reflexive advertising situation due to political instability and which still does not benefit from the positive economic effects of the strategic agreement with other distribution platforms reached in Italy at the end of the quarter, on 30 March 2018".
I revenues instead they fell by 3,2%, to 860,6 million euro. In particular, the turnover linked to television advertising in Italy decreased by 1,2%, "a trend in line with that of the total advertising market in the quarter", while in Spain it decreased by 4,6%.
I operating costs they decreased by 0,8%, to 806,7 million. The operating result for the period fell from 76,2 to 53,9 million euro due to the negative result (-9,8 million) of the Italian activities. As of March 31 thefinancial debt net was 1,377 billion, from 1,392 at the end of December.
The board of directors will propose the renewal of the agreement at the next shareholders' meeting proxy for the purchase of treasury shares up to a maximum of 118,1 million ordinary shares, equal to 10% of the share capital, until the approval of the financial statements at 31 December 2018. Mediaset currently holds 44,7 million treasury shares, equal to 3,787% of the capital social.
As for Premium, revenues fell to 137,6 million euros compared to 151,4 million euros in the corresponding period of 2017. For the whole of 2017, pay TV revenues fell by 5,2% to 587,4 million.
Mediaset also informs that the agreement with Telecom Italia on commissions for retransmission of Mediaset channels unencrypted on the Tim Vision platform will lead to an increase in annual EBIT of between 10 and 15 million euros. Il Biscione then expects that the recognition of "retransmission fees", as occurs in other countries, could lead to similar agreements also with other telephone operators and with Sky itself. However, the agreement between Mediaset and Sky on the retransmission rights of the Alfa Romeo channels on the satellite platform should not arrive in 2018.
