à rsrapport 2005 - Tv2

INNHOLD
2005 in brief
2005 in summary
• Strengthened operation, sound
economic results
• Continued strong position in the
viewer market
• Below target results from radio
• Solid product development for the
Internet and interactive media
• Obtained attractive sports rights
for TV, web TV and mobile
Financially, 2005 was a good year for the
TV 2 Group. Generally high activity and
optimism in the private sector generated
significant growth in the advertising market
and contributed to a strengthening of most
of the Group’s activities. Both the television
channel TV 2, the multi-media company TV
2 Interaktiv, Storm Weather Center and the
production company OB-Team delivered
record results. The TV 2 Group’s operating
result came in at 233 million NOK, the
Group’s second best ever. The losses in the
radio company Kanal 24 were significantly
lower than in 2004, but even if several indicators
are pointing in the right direction,
market shares and advertising revenues are
still not high enough to generate positive
results.
The Group’s total revenues increased
9.5 percent from 2004, while costs increased
6.9 percent. The TV 2 Group’s
ownership in Kanal 24 increased to 51.6
percent in the second half of 2005. Kanal
24 was included as a subsidiary in the
Group’s consolidated accounts from the 4th
Quarter, without significantly influencing the
growth in either revenues or costs in 2005
as a whole. The Group’s tax costs are now
normalised after being relatively low in 2004
due to a deferred tax advantage following
the acquisition of Nettavisen.
TV 2
TV 2’s position in the commercial television
market has been achieved through nationwide
distribution and a broad offering of
news, current interest programmes, sports
and entertainment. The combination of the
light and entertaining on one hand and the
public broadcaster’s seriousness and credibility
on the other, has created a unique environment
for our advertisers. TV 2 is easily
the largest actor in the market for trademark
products advertising and the company sold
television advertising for just short of 1.6 billion
NOK in 2005.
The tough competition in the television
market generated a need for some extra investments
in TV 2’s broadcasting schedule
in the autumn of 2005. Simultaneously, significant
investments were made in the new
television channel TV 2 Zebra. Despite these
additional costs, increased advertising and
distribution revenues contributed to a significantly
sounder operation than the year
before. Cost increases were relatively low
compared with 2004, which was marked by
the heavy investment in, among others, the
European football championship in Portugal.
TV 2’s operating revenues totalled 1,735 million
NOK for the year, up seven percent from
the year before. Operating costs increased
by 3.9 percent to 1,498 million. The operating
result at 236 million is the second best
ever in the company’s 13 year history. The
after tax result was 166 million, down from
214 million in 2004 when the sale of TV 2’s
shares in the commercial channel TVNorge
considerably improved the result.
A number of TV 2’s heavy programme
investments were quite successful in 2005.
The men’s handball world championship in
Tunisia was a success for both the Norwegian
national team and TV 2, and was the
year’s most watched sports event on the
channel. Several of TV 2’s Norwegian entertainment
programmes generated exeptionally
strong viewer figures, for example:
”Idol”, the Norwegian version of ”Farmer
wants a wife”, the satirical programme
”Voice of the Nation”, the drama series ”Six
as us” and the talk show ”Late Night”. The
election of the year’s Norwegian Idol had a
market share of almost 75 percent and was
TV 2’s most seen broadcast ever, as well as
the most viewed programme on television in
Norway in 2005.
The Norwegian economy is currently
in a very positive period and high activity in
the private sector also gives the advertising
market a boost. However, while advertising
sales are increasing, the competition in
the television market remains tough. This
is particularly noticeable in the important
autumn season when the sale of television
advertising is at a peak. TV 2 experienced
lower than expected viewer figures on some
of the most important new programmes in
the autumn of 2005, where the reality show
”Paradise Lost” and particularly the talent
competition ”Are you the next movie star?”
performed lower than targeted. For this reason,
TV 2 did not achieve its relative share of
the market growth in television advertising.
For the year as a whole, TV 2’s share
of the viewers in the national universe fell
marginally to 29.4 percent, while the commercial
market share ended at 63.2 percent.
This represents a decline of 2.1 percentage
points from 2004, but is still well in line with
2003.
One of the most formidable challenges
to an independent Norwegian television
channel is to succeed in the battle for the
most attractive television rights. For this reason
we are especially pleased with having
secured in 2005 a number of rights of high
strategic significance. The most important
was the acquisition by the TV 2 Group and
Telenor of exclusive rights to Norwegian
football. The agreement has an economic
scope of one billion NOK and encompasses
all league play in Norwegian football until and
including 2008, as well as the cup and national
team home games until and including
2009. Moreover, in collaboration with NRK,
TV 2 has secured the rights to the men’s
football world championships in 2006, 2010
and 2014. TV 2 has also acquired long term
rights to Tour de France and international
handball, which is a large sport in Norway.
TV 2 Zebra
In order to strengthen the Group’s position
in a television market characterised by an
increasing number of specialty channels,
the general public channel TV 2 was supplemented
with the sports and entertainment
channel TV 2 Zebra in 2005. This channel
addresses a somewhat younger and more
commercially oriented audience than its parent
channel. TV 2 Zebra was launched in the
68 TV 2 GRUPPEN ÅRSRAPPORT 2005