Satellite broadcaster Wowow Inc. said Friday it fell into the red for the first time in six years in fiscal 2000 due to cuts in subscription fees and growth in costs for adding subscribers.

It registered a consolidated net loss of 3.35 billion yen in the year to March 31 against a net profit of 6.46 billion yen the previous year.

Group pretax loss came to 3.26 billion yen from a pretax profit of 7.62 billion yen in fiscal 1999, while operating loss stood at 3.02 billion yen against an operating profit of 7.58 billion yen on a 1.9 percent fall in sales to 61.67 billion yen.

It marked a net loss per share of 40,278.23 yen, compared with a net profit per share of 77,718.84 yen the year before.

On a parent-only basis, Wowow posted a net loss of 2.92 billion yen over a net profit of 6.35 billion yen in fiscal 1999.

Unconsolidated pretax losses stood at 2.87 billion yen, compared with a pretax profit of 7.42 billion yen on a 2.9 percent sales fall to 61 billion yen.

For the current fiscal year, the company expects a group pretax loss of 2.2 billion yen and a net loss of 2.21 billion yen as costs for content procurement and broadcasting are likely to grow. It anticipates group sales of 65.5 billion yen.

Wowow debuted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market for startups in April.

Meanwhile, it announced that Vice President Yoshiro Yoshioka will be promoted to president in June, replacing Shoji Sakuma, who will assume the chairmanship.

Yoshioka, 59, joined Fujitsu Ltd. in 1964 and moved to Wowow last year.