à rsrapport 2005 - Tv2

INNHOLD
autumn of 2005 and surveys conducted in
the beginning of 2006 show that the viewers
perceive the channel as trendy and youthful,
quite in line with the target image.
TV 2 Zebra distributes via cable and
satellite, and has a technical coverage of
approximately 60 percent. The channel will
continue to nourish the sports and entertainment
profile, and we expect that effective
use of the Norwegian football rights will help
consolidate the new channel’s position.
Kanal 24
The nation-wide radio Kanal 24 started
broadcasting in 2004 and after a troubled
start the channel had to be repositioned in
the market. The listener number increased
somewhat during the year, but the anticipated
growth in market shares failed to materialise
because the average listening time declined
compared with the preceding year.
Advertising revenues increased 22
percent, but even after significant cost reductions
and restructuring, a profitable
operation is still some distance away. The
operating result was - 81.2 million NOK, up
from - 113.4 million in 2004. However, the
radio channel operation is important to TV
2 Group’s presence in the electronic media
market.
TV 2 Interaktiv
TV 2 Interaktiv generated its best result ever
in 2005. The operating result was 14.6 million
NOK against 4.9 million the year before.
The company is engaged in a broad
range of activities, particularly linked to the
Internet, telecommunication services, web
television, ip-TV and mobile content services.
The telecommunication area was an
important contributor to improved sales and
results in 2005, but the company is also well
positioned in other areas where growth is
expected in the coming years. The survey
by TNS Gallup shows that more than 10
percent of the population already uses mobile
content services weekly. Towards the
end of 2005, TV 2 Mobil had more than 100
000 weekly users.
TV 2’s web television service has
strengthened its position as market leader,
and in order to maintain its leading position
as a content supplier in this segment, the
Group has invested significantly and entered
into a number of strategic collaboration
agreements. It is expected that a number of
actors will move heavily into the ip-TV market
in 2006 and that the competition on this
platform will intensify significantly.
The growth in sales of Internet advertising
was formidable in 2005 and the Internet
passed both radio and out-of-doors
advertising as a conduit for trademark advertising.
TV 2 Nettavisen is positioned as
the country’s third largest editorially based
Internet site and maintained its relative share
of the increased sales in 2005. With a significantly
more modern Internet, the advertisers
are sharpening their requirements to the
medium, both in respect of degree of coverage
and target group focusing. For this reason,
TV 2 Nettavisen invested significantly
in editorial products in 2005, for example
by launching the new entertainment portal
Side2 and the Internet publication NA24,
which exclusively offers news from politics
and industry. Both of these newcomers
quickly achieved a large user following, and
co-ordination with TV 2 Nettavisen is now
generating over 3 million monthly users and
around one million unique users per week.
TV 2 Nettavisen increased its operating
revenues by 41 percent in 2005 and
achieved an operating result of 3.2 million
NOK, against 1.1 million in the year before.
In January 2006, TV 2 Nettavisen was
merged with TV 2 Interaktiv, which therefore
has become the country’s larges supplier of
Internet products and interactive services
with an expected annual turnover of more
than 250 million.
A media concern for the future.
The acquisition of exclusive rights to Norwegian
top football is of importance to the
entire concern because the agreement includes
both free TV, pay TV, the Internet and
mobile. This agreement is a particularly important
element in the Group’s strategy for
increasing sales associated with distribution
and user charges.
Completion of digital distribution is important
to the TV 2 Group, both because it opens
for better utilisation of scarce frequency resources,
lowers distribution costs, enables
investments in more channels and development
of new content products. In February
2004 the Norwegian parliament issued the
go ahead for installation of a digital ground
network, and the company Norges televisjon
(NTV), where the TV 2 Group, Telenor
and NRK own 1/3 each, was the only applicant
when the concession was announced
for the second time in the spring of 2005. It
is expected that the Ministry of Culture and
Communication will assign the concession
to NTV in the spring of 2006.
Main figures
2004 2005
Operating revenues 1 776 1 944
Operating costs 1 601 1 711
Operating profit 175 233
Operating margin (EBIT) 9,8% 12,0%
Net profit for the year 126 139
Man-years 657 772
* Figures in mill NOK
In November the three NTV owners founded
the company NTV Pluss, which is intended
to take care of the pay-TV operation in the
ground network.
Significant investments were made in
2005 to digitalise the television production.
In the main office in Bergen, analogue production
technology has been replaced with
digital news room, and the Oslo office will
be similarly upgraded in 2006. In Bergen a
new studio is under construction in the first
quarter of 2006 in order to facilitate parallel
studio broadcasts on several channels.
Also the line control is being upgraded to
handle increased activity. A new main control
with capacity for sending 8-9 television
channels will also be completed in 2006. TV
2 is now well under way to become a fully
digitalised media house based on modern
and forward-looking solutions.
TV 2 GRUPPEN ÅRSRAPPORT 2005 69