Showbiz feels the fiscal pinch overseas

November 20, 2008 Falling ad revenue, tumbling share prices, skittish investors, frozen credit markets -- from the U.K. to Germany to Russia, the economic picture isn't any prettier than it is in the U.S. Talk to a European TV executive about the state of the business these days and you're as likely to get a shrug of the shoulders as a coherent game plan for dealing with what's predicted to be a major downturn in 2009. The millions of dollars of leveraged finance that drove a slew of private-equity buyouts in the past five years has dried up, its proponents say, while corporations are huddling around whatever cashflow reserves remain on their balance sheets.

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