SMG’s Pearl & Dean Secures Cinema Ad Deal

SMG has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Pearl & Dean, has been awarded the four-year contract to sell advertising across the UK and Ireland for UCG Cinemas.

The contract, which runs from 7 January next year and covers 405 screens in 43 cinemas, takes the number of screens handled by Pearl & Dean to 1,406 and means that the company now controls 43% of the UK cinema advertising market.

SMG’s chief executive, Andrew Flanagan, said: “This is a significant step forward in our strategy of expanding SMG’s presence in one of the fastest growing sectors of media across the UK. Cinema is a unique medium that has proved remarkably buoyant throughout the advertising downturn, putting advertisers in front of valuable and attentive audiences.”

Chief executive of SMG’s out of home division, Christine Costello, added: “Despite the current advertising downturn Pearl & Dean’s position in the cinema sector is forecast to grow by around 40% in 2001. This deal will allow us to focus on increasing the profile of cinema advertising overall in the UK to the benefit of all our customers.”

Last month SMG announced that a review of staffing levels would lead to a maximum of 95 redundancies across its operations by the end of 2001 (see SMG Makes 95 Cost-Cutting Redundancies). In September the company released a gloomy set of interim results revealing that the advertising downturn had led to a 33.7% fall pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 June and a 12% drop in operating profit to £32 million (see Newsline).

SMG: 0141 300 3000 www.scottishmediagroup.com

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