So far, so great, Astral Media president and CEO Ian Greenberg said Wednesday as the TV and radio broadcaster unveiled flat fourth-quarter earnings in a worsening economy.

But despite producing the 12th consecutive year of profit growth, Greenberg remained tight-lipped about Astral’s prospects for the coming year in an ad market where consumers are increasingly putting the breaks on household spending.

‘Q1, at this point, I’m pleased with it. The issue is the balance of the year, where visibility is not clear at this time and I’m not willing to make any comments,’ Greenberg told analysts. That reticence was in contrast to pay-TV business partner Corus Entertainment, where CEO John Cassaday last week painted a darkening outlook for the industry amid an economic downturn.

Astral revealed earnings of $39.9 million on revenue of $229.9 million for the three months to Aug. 31, compared to earnings of $38.1 million on revenue of $160.6 million in 2007, before the broadcaster acquired Standard Radio to become Canada’s largest radio station owner.

Astral’s full-year profit was $177 million on $865.4 million in sales, compared to a profit of $131.2 million on revenue of $640.5 million in fiscal 2007.

During fiscal 2008, Astral saw TV revenues jump 5% to $497 million, while radio revenue grew dramatically by 156% to $296.3 million.

But, given the economic downturn, analysts pressed Greenberg on Astral’s upcoming prospects. The Astral CEO did not concede any margin compression from the specialty and pay-TV division over the current year.

‘In specialty TV, we have confidence in the ratings. We don’t expect to see a major fall-off frankly, so at this point we don’t expect to see a compression in margins,’ he told analysts.

‘Radio is susceptible to margin compression. We’re trying to keep some flexibility. It’s not the easiest road to go in terms of radio, if volume decreases,’ Greenberg added.

On the pay-TV front, The Movie Network added 25,000 subscribers during the latest quarter for around 1.7 million customers currently. TMN and its Corus-owned counterpart Movie Central on Thursday will launch HBO Canada nationally in a bid to boost the appeal of their pay-TV offerings.

Greenberg also said the upstart Teletoon Retro and Playhouse Disney digital channels were in ‘profit territory’ for their first year of operation.

Besides its TV and radio assets, Astral operates an outdoor ad business and online assets.