PARIS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - France's TF1 will return money to shareholders via a large dividend of 1.50 euro per share and a 60 million euro share buy back programme after selling sports channel Eurosport last year.

It also said more favourable factors for the French economy "could lead to a stabilisation of net revenue" in the television advertising market this year, a shift from earlier stagnation.

The country's largest private broadcaster, which competes with smaller rival M6 and state-funded France Televisions, also posted fourth-quarter advertising sales down 1.2 percent to 482.4 million euros. Operating profit fell 20.6 percent to 84.7 million euros.

(Reporting by Leila Abboud; Editing by Andrew Callus)