AOL suffers 6% drop in global ad revenue

AOL%20logoTime Warner’s broadband business AOL saw its global ad revenue fall by 6% in the three months to September 30. This was despite Time Warner reporting an 11% increase in profit to $11.7bn (£7.3bn) compared to the previous year.

AOL made $33m (£21m) profit on AOL ads in the third quarter compared to $35m (£19m) last year. However, the broadband operator’s revenue decreased by 17%, or $207m (£130m), to $1bn (£626m), due to a 26% decline in subscription revenue and a 6% decrease in advertising revenue.

In a statement, the company said: “Driving the decrease in advertising revenues were declines in display advertising on AOL Network sites and sales of advertising on third-party internet sites, offset partially by an increase in paid-search advertising.”

Operating income was down 9% to $268m (£167m). Meanwhile, AOL reported it had 110 million average monthly unique visitors and 54 million page views in the third quarter.

The media company says the numbers were down from 111 million average monthly uniques and 56 million page views in the second quarter.

The AOL broadband service has 7.5 million dial-up subscribers, down 634,000 from a year ago and 2.6 million from a year ago. In the UK AOL is offered by The Carphone Warehouse and not Time Warner.