PRISA's EBITDA reached €948 million

• Revenues increased by 8.3% to reach €4,001.35 million and EBIT was €698.19 million (+34.3%).
• Santillana increased its revenues by 8.5% and improved its EBITDA by 12.0% to €134.35 million. The publishing group breaks its records. It is worth highlighting the performance of education in Spain (+15.2%), Venezuela (+38.6%), Argentina (+19.4%) and Perú (+96.7%). Regular sales in Brazil increased by 30.0% compared to the previous year.
• Cadena SER, with 4,705,000 listeners according to the third survey of EGM, maintained its leadership position. International Radio revenues increased by 7.0% to reach €94.80 million and improved its EBITDA margins.
• El País strengthened its leadership position and finished 2008 with a average daily circulation of 431,034 copies. 
• Revenues from Sogecable registered a new record as of December 31st 2008, and reached €1,872.87 million. DIGITAL+ increased its EBIT by 34.6% to €237.83 million, AND Cuatro increased its revenues by 13.7% and reached an average audience share of 8.6% in 2008.
• Revenues from audiovisual production increased by 10.9%.
• Prisacom continued a positive trend and increased advertising revenues by 22.4%. 

Grupo PRISA has reported full-year revenue of 4,001.35  million euros for 2008, representing growth of 8.3%. EBITDA was up from 779.62 million euros to 948.34 million euros over the previous year, a 21.7% climb as compared to a rise of 21.1% in 2007. 

Significant rises were reported in the publishing division, which has seen both EBITDA climb 12% to 14.43 million euros as well as a corresponding improvement in its operating margins. Pay TV also reported strong results, with its EBITDA  up 10.4% over 2007's figure.

The Group's Earnings Before Interest & Tax (EBIT) were 698.19 million euros as compared to 519.93 million in 2007, a positive inter-annual variation of +34.3%. Digital + reported robust EBIT growth of 34.6%, posting earnings of 237.83 million euros. The EBIT Margin was 17.4%, up from 14.1% over the previous year. These results have enabled the Group to dedicate 164 million euros towards writing down its assets, with PRISA's net profit now standing at 83 millio euros.

Net debt, including Sogecable's subordinated debt, was 5,044.10 million euros at the close of 2008.

Advertising

Total advertising revenues (€1,067.07 million) decreased by 4.9%, improving the estimates for the overall market, due to the leadership of the Group´s brands, the diversified portfolio of its clients and its exposure to national, local and international advertising.

Books and training

Books and training sales increased by 8.1% (€579.74 million compared to €536.47 million in 2007).

In the northern campaigns, Spain stood out, increased its revenues by €25.66 million compared to 2007 (+15.2%), and improved its market share. It is also worth highlighting the regular campaign of Venezuela, where revenues increased by 38.6% to reach €33.87 million, breaking its records.

The evolution of the southern campaigns has been very positive. It is worth highlighting Argentina (+19.4%) and Peru (+96.7%). Revenues coming from the regular campaign of Brazil increased by 30.0% compared to 2007. Regarding the institutional sale in Brazil in 2008, a replacement year within Brazil´s institutional sale cycle, revenues amounted to €61.56 million and the market share for Primary and Secondary reached 26%.

Newspapers and magazines

Newspapers and magazines sales (€209.86 million) remained stable compared to 2007.

In February 2008, El País increased its cover price for the Sunday edition by €0.20 to €2.20. At the end of May 2008, the daily edition increased its cover price by €0.10 € to €1.10. El País has merged its printed and online versions and has designed a new organizational model to update its production and editorial structure to gain competitiveness.

In the current environment El País, with an average daily circulation of 431,034 copies, has strengthened its leadership position. El País average daily circulation has slightly decreased compared to the previous year, but it has widened the gap with its main competitor.

According to the third survey of EGM, El País has renewed its hegemony among paid press, registering an average of 2,218,000 daily readers. The gap between El País and its main competitor reached 870,000 readers (+64.5%), a 4.1% over last year.

In 2008, AS continued to reduce the distance with its main competitor and reached an average daily circulation of 230,492 copies. AS maintained its leadership position in Madrid and ended 2008 being the leader also in Castilla La Mancha. In Cataluña, and especially in Barcelona, AS has maintained its position ahead of its main competitor and continued to grow in the rest of Spain. AS reached 1,266,000 readers according to the last survey of EGM and gained 96,000 readers in the last year.

Cinco Días reached an average daily circulation of 40,077 copies in 2008. This represents a slight decrease compared to the circulation of 2007 (-1.2%), when Cinco Días registered its record of circulation. In 2008, Cinco Días registered profits during four consecutive years and obtained its best audience figure according to the third survey of EGM, reaching 90,000 readers.

Pay and free-to-view TV

Subscriber-based revenue reached 1,141.10 million euros (+0.4%). Average Digital+ subscriber revenue per head was 44.5 euros per month over the fourth quarter of 2008, with a total subscriber base of 2,035,000.

Cuatro has continued to see audience figures climb and is up 8.6%, as compared to 7.7% in 2007. 2008's figures show that the channel enjoys a 10.7% share of audience among commercial targets and a share of 11.8% of the core target group, compared to figures of 9.5% and 10.4%, respectively, in December of 2007.

Media Capital's free-to-view channel TVI remains market leader in Portugal, both around the clock and during prime time. In 2008, TVI has posted significant rises in audience figures, with an average 36% average audience share, and 41.3% at prime time.

Audiovisual Production

Audiovisual production revenues increased by 10.9% to reach €347.79 million compared to €313.71 million in 2007. This line includes the activities of selling audiovisual rights, the sale and production of programs, the revenues coming from the cinema distribution activity and the sale of different channels to cable operators at Sogecable. Revenues coming from the sale and production of programs in Plural reached €54.18 million in 2008 (+18.8%).