TV Asahi Corp. said Friday its group net profit swelled 216.3 percent to 3.47 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2004 from a year earlier.

The company added that it has raised its per-share dividend payment.

In the April-September period, group pretax profit surged 126.7 percent to 6.78 billion yen, with sales growing 10.5 percent to 118.40 billion yen.

The company has raised its payment for both the first-half and yearend dividends from 300 yen to 500 yen per share.

The strong earnings were laid partly to a sharp increase in spot advertisement sales, with ads for electronics appliances -- including flat TVs and DVD devices -- growing sharply. Sales of ads for beverages, cosmetics and insurance products were also solid, the company said.

Spot ad sales were particularly robust in the July-September quarter due to the impact of the Athens Olympics and the hotter-than-usual summer, it said. Per-share net profit came to 3,453.40 yen, up from 1,091.67 yen a year earlier.

For the full year to March, the company expects a group net profit of 5 billion yen and A pretax profit of 10 billion yen on sales of 232.5 billion yen.

The figures compare with the previous year's net profit of 1.69 billion yen, pretax profit of 5.89 billion yen and sales of 218.08 billion yen.