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MediaBuyerPlanner: Clear Channel Communications Inc. reported lower profits in Q2 but higher-than-expected revenue increases at its outdoor and radio advertising businesses.
Second quarter profit fell to $197.5 million or 39 cents per share, from $220.7 million or 40 cents per share compared to last year, according to Reuters. Revenue rose 7 percent, and for the second year in a row, radio broadcast revenues rose 6 percent, outpacing the radio industry as a whole which was down 1 percent.
Radio revenue for Q3 is currently pacing up 4.8 percent and the company expects continued improvement during the rest of the quarter. According to Kit Spring, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc., the Less Is More strategy is beginning to have an impact and Clear Channel is stealing share from its peers.
Lee Westerfield, analyst with BMO, is quoted as saying that the only blemish in the company’s strong quarter is the fact that it is expecting a downturn in Q3 in its European outdoor advertising business. But, he said he is giving Clear Channel Outdoor the benefit of the doubt and believes that the company can do what is necessary in France and the U.K. to recover the group. The article points to the fact that Clear Channel completed spinoffs of billboard operator Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. and event promoter Live Nation Inc.
Related stories:
Kagan: Radio Revenue Growth of 1.8 Percent in 2006
Clear Channel Outdoor Completes Acquisition of Interspace
Clear Channel Outdoor Explores Korea
Clear Channel Outdoor Seeks Expansion in Japan
Clear Channel Outdoor Acquires Van Wagner’s U.K. Operations