Pro Sieben Sat 1: Business is bad

The German broadcasting chain Pro Sieben Sat 1 is facing a bleak outlook for the coming months. It announced on Wednesday that the business figures would not develop as expected. Profits and sales would be significantly lower than recently forecast. The reason for this is that TV commercials are selling less well than expected. Instead of the previous forecast of an operating profit of 780 million euros, the German group is now expecting only 670 to 700 million euros for 2008. The stock market reacted to the profit warning with a sharp drop in the share price: Pro Sieben Sat 1's share price fell by more than ten percent and, at around five euros, is now back near its all-time low (4.33 euros). Last year, the share price was still around EUR 30.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung cites the worsening economic conditions as one reason for this situation, but also believes that a large part of the problem is home-made: the Group introduced a new model for marketing advertising time and then changed it again after it failed. The Group has apparently not yet recovered from this.
There has been turbulence at Pro Sieben Sat 1 for months: In mid-June, company boss Guillaume de Posch resigned and plans to retire from the private television station by the end of this year. However, there is still no successor in sight, although the Supervisory Board has been searching intensively for some time.