Trading Updates Offer Little Hope To Radio Industry

GWR this morning released a trading update in order to keep investors informed of the company’s progress in these ‘uncertain and volatile’ times for the UK radio advertising market. The group announced that in the 3 months to December 2001, revenues have fallen by 8.4% for the year, 10.8% in the UK, including a 19.4% decline in national revenues.

GWR anticipates that revenues for the UK market in January will be around 6% down, year on year, but declines to predict any further ahead than that, saying “The radio advertising market continues to be volatile making it difficult to forecast revenues even in the short term”. The group will provide a further update in March.

Similarly Capital this morning released a trading update to coincide with today’s AGM. This morning the group announced that radio revenue was down 9% in year on year for the last quarter of 2001, in line with expectations in the “continuing tough advertising market”.

Capital also stated that there had been “no material change in conditions” in the period since November and said that any business decisions made would assume that “the advertising market remains under pressure for the rest of our financial year”.

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