The regional company's broadcast segment (operating TV channels in six countries) grew 12.2 for the year, with net revenues of $775 million. All individual territories reported growth, with Bulgaria performing particularly well: $93.7 million in annual net revenues in 2011, up by $22 million over 2010. Croatia and Slovakia also registered a strong recovery. Croatia's net revenues rose by $10 million, to $61.5 million for the year; Slovakia's grew by $11.6 million, to $102 million.
CME's production and distribution arm Media Pro Entertainment grew an impressive 33%, for annual net revenues of $187 million.
"In a difficult year, we kept our promises," CME president and CEO Adrian Sarbu said in a statement. "We outperformed the markets following successful implementation of our business model: One Content, Multiple Distribution."
Despite the company's apparent recovery throughout the year as a whole, the stock dropped steadily through the trading day, closing down 18.24%, at $6.95 per share on NASDAQ, perhaps reflecting a relatively weaker Q4 performance compared with the annual results.
CME is a media and entertainment
company operating leading businesses in six Central and Eastern European
markets with an aggregate population of approximately 50 million
people. CME's broadcast operations are located in Bulgaria (bTV, bTV
Cinema, bTV Comedy, bTV Action, bTV Lady and Ring.bg), Croatia (Nova TV,
Doma and Nova World), the Czech Republic (TV Nova, Nova Cinema, Nova
Sport and MTV Czech), Romania (PRO TV, PRO TV International, Acasa, PRO
Cinema, Sport.ro, MTV Romania and PRO TV Chisinau Moldova), the Slovak
Republic (TV Markíza and Doma) and Slovenia (POP TV, Kanal A and the POP
NON STOP subscription package). CME's broadcast operations are
supported by its production and distribution division, Media Pro
Entertainment, as well as its New Media division, which operates Voyo,
the pan-regional video-on-demand service.
CME is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and the Prague Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CETV".
