UNTERFÖHRING (dpa-AFX) - The television group ProSiebenSat.1 has made a surprisingly good start to the new year thanks to a recovery in the TV advertising markets. Revenues rose by around six percent year-on-year to EUR 867 million, as the SDax-listed company announced in Unterfohring on Monday evening. This means that business developed better than analysts had expected on average. ProSiebenSat.1 benefited above all from the streaming service Joyn and the significantly smaller e-commerce segment, which grew profitably.

Adjusted for special effects, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by a good third to EUR 72 million. Adjusted consolidated net profit rose to 8 million euros after a loss of 15 million euros in the same period of the previous year.

The Executive Board maintained its annual forecast of total earnings of 3.8 to 4.1 billion euros with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 525 to 625 million euros. The Executive Board intends to present the full figures on May 14.

The news was well received by investors. In an initial reaction, the ProSiebenSat.1 share rose by one percent on the Tradegate trading platform.

According to the latest figures, the Group has recently cut more than 500 full-time jobs and reduced annual gross costs by EUR 100 million. Group CEO Bert Habets also intends to further reduce costs in the medium term and is also considering further job cuts.

Meanwhile, the vote by ProSiebenSat.1 shareholders on the split of the media group into two listed companies is eagerly awaited at the Annual General Meeting on April 30. The major shareholder MediaForEurope (MFE) wants to separate the core business of TV and streaming from peripheral activities such as the online perfumery Flaconi, the comparison portals Verivox and Billiger-Mietwagen.de and the dating site ParshipMeet.

Skeptics suspected that the Italians wanted to acquire the lucrative TV division faster and more cheaply without having to buy the remaining activities that were not interesting for them. In the past, the Milanese had repeatedly demanded that ProSiebenSat.1 should sell these in order to create "added value". MFE holds almost 30 percent of ProSiebenSat.1./ngu/he