It’s the TV economy, stupid.

Amid speculation of PBL Media’s crippling debt, Channel Nine has denied a rumour it is trying to sell its share of the London 2012 Olympic rights.

“At the very time that our enemies are putting this around we have been in the process of wrapping up the (2011 and 2015) Rugby World Cup rights as well,” Nine spokesman David Hurley told BusinessDaily.

“We’d hardly be doing that and in the same breathe be trying to shop around the Olympic rights.”

Mr Hurley did say that all networks were having to “live with the realities” of tighter economic times.
“There’s a tightening in the ad market but as far as we’re concerned we’re going pretty well with it,” he said.

Yes that’s because no television network in history has ever said its revenue outlook was an unmitigated disaster.

While the financial crisis sweeps the globe, Australia’s leading media buyer, Harold Mitchell, said a squeeze on the ad market would flow through and affect the amounts networks spend on future broadcasting deals.

“It puts into question very big outlays into the future because the Olympics that the Seven Network have had in the past have tended to coincide with high-volume advertising years,” he said.

The networks are also under pressure to profit from deals struck before the full extent of the financial crisis was known.

Shares in TEN and Seven have halved since the start of the year.

Meanwhile, Telstra’s chief financial officer, John Stanhope said new subscriptions for Foxtel are slowing down. Foxtel is 50% owned by Telstra.

Last month Credit Suisse downgraded its revenue forecasts for the pay TV provider and cut its predictions of average revenues per user, predicting customers would switch to cheaper program packages during an economic downturn.

Foxtel recently adjusted the prices of its packages, including in some instances, a slight decrease.

Source: news.com.au, Smh.com.au