TVN, the Polish commercial TV network, saw revenues in the fourth quarter improve by 4.6 per cent driving full year growth to 3.6 per cent – meeting guidance of low-single digit increase – a result of TVN’s content schedules dominating the audience share market, steady increase in the third party advertising inventory represented through Premium TV, stronger pricing as well as continued expansion of non-linear video content offerings.

Advertising related revenues grew by 5.4 per cent in the fourth quarter and improved the full year increase to 5.1 per cent – in line with the guidance for mid-single digit growth and outperforming the estimated TV advertising market expansion of nearly 5 per cent.

Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter was PLN 184 million – up by PLN 26 million, fuelled by the incremental revenue and strong cost discipline. Full year adjusted EBITDA arrived at PLN 530 million – exceeding the guidance target of PLN 520 million.

Reported EBITDA growth in both fourth quarter and full year reflected improvement in adjusted EBITDA coupled with impact of associates turned from impairment and share of loss in 2013 to share of profit in 2014.

• The  programming strategy of the main channel translated into its top performance in the autumn schedule reaching average audience shares in the commercial target group of 14.6 per cent in all day and 16.6 per cent in peak time.
• TVN thematic channels portfolio increased its combined audience share in the autumn season from 8.8 per cent to 9.0 per cent year-on-year, reflecting stronger content proposition and further increase in technical reach of both DTT and encrypted Pay TV channels.
• nC+ – the strategic associate of TVN – reported 2.15 million post-paid subscribers at the end of December, with average monthly ARPU up by 4 per cent to PLN 68.3 in 2014 and full year revenues of PLN 2,148 million. Full year EBITDA arrived at PLN 295 million with the TVN share of nC+ profit amounting to PLN 17.5 million in 2014.
• Net result for the full year of PLN 189 million predominantly reflected the improved EBITDA and significantly lower financial expense.
• Net debt to adjusted EBITDA strengthened to 3.9 at the end of 2014.
• 12.5 million shares were purchased in 2014 at an price of PLN 20 per share for a total cash spend of PLN 250 million within the share buyback program for 2014-2015 of up to PLN 500 million and not exceeding 10 per cent of TVN shares approved by the Annual General Shareholders Meeting of TVN.
• Within the framework of 7.875 per cent Senior Notes repurchase program of up to €60 million for 2014, TVN repurchased Notes with €55 million net nominal value.

Markus Tellenbach, Chief Executive Officer said: ”2014 was a year of full turnaround and recovering momentum. The economy accelerated as expected and almost doubled its growth rate driven by domestic demand and investments. Such favourable macro environment translated into long awaited increase in advertising budgets and recovery of television advertising market which has grown by nearly 5 per cent – in line with the guidance I have communicated a year ago.

TVN was well advanced in preparations to benefit from improving demand for advertising and as a result we have accomplished improving metrics across all business segments. Introduction of TVN24 Biznes i Świat channel resulted in audience shares significantly higher than these of its predecessor TVN CNBC. Implementation of new pricing policy reinstalled rational approach in the market. Strengthened spring and autumn programming schedules of TVN main channel outperformed competitive content offerings while portfolio of thematic channels posted another year of audience share growth. Further development of non-linear video content platform drove increased usage. And our sales representation service, Premium TV, contributed to our strong results based on steadily expanding group of cooperating TV stations.

Altogether we have delivered upon the guidance: our advertising related revenue growth was 5.1 per cent – in the mid-single digit range, our consolidated revenue increased by 3.6 per cent – in the low‑single digit range, while the adjusted EBITDA arrived at PLN 530 million – above our guidance target. These financial measures confirm the impressive operating strengths of our businesses.

2015 is expected to deliver further improvements across all business metrics. Economy should continue accelerating and we envisage this translating into the television advertising market. TVN’s leadership position will benefit us with revenue growth expected to exceed the market and profitability to gradually improve further – in line with our medium term outlook.”

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