TVN advertising sales up 18 pct in Q1 -report

WARSAW, April 6 (Reuters) - Advertising sales at Polish broadcaster, TVN TVNN.WA, rose 18 percent in the first quarter based on book prices, a report showed on Tuesday, pointing to the effects of an economic recovery on the TV ad market.

TVN, Eastern Europe's largest listed media group, sold 599 million zlotys ($210 million) in television advertising time, excluding rebates or discounts, according to data compiled by TNS OBOP for the Wirtualnemedia.pl web portal.

Advertising sales at unlisted Polish rival Polsat jumped almost 24 percent to 557 million zlotys, the report estimated.

TVN, which reaches almost 90 percent of Polish households and also runs Poland's leading web portal, expects Poland's television advertising market to grow by 2-3 percent this year after a 15-percent drop in 2009. [ID:nWSF008729]

TVN shares edged up 0.2 percent on Tuesday versus a 0.8 percent rise of Warsaw's main WIG20 index's .WIG20. The stock has gained 27 percent this year, outperforming the index's 7 percent rise. ($1=2.858 Zloty) (Reporting by Adrian Krajewski; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)