4 ventures has slashed its losses to £28 million (from £60 million in 2001) after a surge in advertising sales on E4 and text messaging from last year's Big Brother.

E4 saw its advertising rise 79% while its losses fell to £16 million (from £37 million 2001). In addition the film channel FilmFour also reduced losses to £7m (from £11 million 2001).

Overall C4 anticipate that this year (2003) things will improve further with an additional halving of losses.