Mexico's Televisa Q4 net jumps

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican broadcaster Televisa said on Thursday its fourth-quarter net profit rose 17 percent, driven by its cable and satellite units, but warned that pre-paid advertising for 2008 was easing from a year ago.

Grupo Televisa said it earned 2.835 billion pesos ($260 million) in the October-December quarter, compared with 2.430 billion pesos in the same period last year.

Results were above a Reuters survey of analysts, who were expecting a quarterly net profit of 2.601 billion pesos.

Quarterly sales came in at 12.407 billion pesos, compared with 11.145 billion pesos in the year-ago period and also exceeding market forecast.

The company, known around the world for its tear-jerking soap operas, said that as of December 31, it had received upfront advertising deposits for television advertising of about 16.23 billion pesos, a 3.2 percent decrease in real terms compared with the previous year.

($1=10.9195 as of end December)

(Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz. editing by Gunna Dickson)