Michael Del Nin, Co-CEO, said in a statement: "The year is off to a strong start and this quarter's results reinforce our ability to drive continued margin expansion, as revenues improved with no increase in our overall cost base compared to last year."

Christoph Mainusch, Co-CEO, added: "We maintained our audience share leadership in all countries during the first quarter while controlling costs, and the full roll-out of our spring season has improved our audience results since the end of March 2016. Several new local productions debuted towards the end of the quarter, and some are growing in popularity. The strength of our existing channels as well as new channels also drove an increase in carriage fees and subscription revenues during the quarter."

CME posted a 49 percent rise in OBIDA, to 17.1 m USD, and recent refinancing of debt is expected to help cash flow and leverage.

Operations in the Czech Republic led the revenue growth, up 10.4 percent to 36.4 m USD. Slovakia was in second place with revenues up 8.7 percent, to 19.1 m USD. Operations in Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia all posted declines in revenues.

CME operates 36 TV channels in six CEE territories.