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Granada posts 2001 loss
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November 28, 2001: 3:34 a.m. ET
Britain's biggest commercial tv broadcaster says Q1 revenue down 12 percent
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LONDON (CNN) - Granada, Britain's biggest commercial television broadcaster, posted a full-year loss on Wednesday as advertising revenue tumbled.
The company, which makes hit soap opera Coronation Street and prime-time show Blind Date, said on Monday net advertising for its first-quarter ending December would decline 12 percent.
Like its rivals and counterparts abroad, Granada (GAA) has seen advertising spending decline to its worst level in a decade as the global economy teeters on the brink of recession. The September 11 attacks have exasperated that trend, the company said.
"Companies see advertising as discretionary and it always comes under pressure during an economic slowdown," Benedict Lawson, fund mangers at Seven Investment Management, told CNN.
Granada made a loss of £132 million, or 5.2 pence a share, in the year to September 30, compared with a profit of £550 million, or 35.1p a share, a year ago.
Operating profit before cost, including investment in loss-making digital service ITVDigital and acquisition costs, was £201 million, compared with a £294 million a year earlier. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast a range between £209 million and £266 million.
Granada has also come under pressure from a plethora of new channels and pay-television networks. Its own pay-TV service ITVdigital, which it owns with Carlton Communications, will not break even until it acquires 1.7 million subscribers. The service currently has 1 million customers and has drained about £788 million.
Granada said ITV Digital had implemented a plan to cut costs by £145 million in 2002.
The company, which agreed to buy the regional television broadcast businesses of United News & Media for £1.75 billion in July, said the group was on track to deliver £60 million of savings a year by 2003.
Granada stock, which has fallen by a third this year, rose 1 percent to 149.5 pence in early London trading on Wednesday. 
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