Television Corp falls 28% after warning

Television Corporation saw its shares crash 28 per cent yesterday after a stinging profits warning.

The company said there had been a "slow" start to the year, which had been compounded by "extremely difficult" trading at Molinare, its post-production business. The shares closed off 35p at 91.5p.

It warned of a first-half loss of £1m, before tax, goodwill and exceptional costs. Analysts had previously been looking for full-year pre-tax profits of £5.2m. This was brought down to £2.3m yesterday.

Television Corporation is the company behind Channel 4's cricket coverage, Robot Wars on BBC2 and Question Time on BBC1. It also owns the "hawk eye" technology currently being used at Wimbledon to see whether line calls are correct.

Losses at Molinare have increased significantly over the last two months and are expected to be approximately £1m for the half year. "This performance is extremely disappointing in the light of the restructuring of this business in recent years but reflects the severity of the downturn in the post-production industry," it said. A new managing director for the unit, Mark Foligno, has been appointed to try to turn things around.

Elsewhere, the content business has seen a good level of commissions, the company said.