Nippon Television Network Corp. said Thursday its group net profit for the first half to Sept. 30 plunged 45.3 percent from a year earlier to 10.87 billion yen. Group pretax profit fell 35.9 percent to 23.1 billion yen on a 9.3 percent drop in operating revenues to 170.37 billion yen.
Although it targeted advertisers hoping to capitalize on the summer's World Cup soccer broadcasts and extended broadcasting hours for night baseball games, it said it could not overcome declining ad revenues.
The company said it plans to pay a full-year dividend of 50 yen, which breaks down into midterm and yearend dividends of 25 yen each. It paid 120 yen per share in 2001.