Ulster Outshines ITV Giants In Latest Results

Northern Ireland’s television broadcaster continues to outperform the likes of Carlton and Granada and ad revenues rose by 4.7% to £37.8 million against a decrease of 1% across the whole network. UTV’s peak time audience share of 34.5% also compared favourably with the ITV average of 31.5%.

Group chief executive John McCann said: “Despite another difficult year for the media industry, the UTV group continued to make excellent progress and increased its operating profits significantly in a challenging economic environment.”

Overall turnover increased by 10% from £43 million in 2001 to £47.3 million last year while pre-tax profits before goodwill were up from £13.4 million to £13.9 million. Radio revenues alone climbed by 58% to £6.3 million following the acquisition of three stations in the Republic of Ireland.

Nonetheless, television remains the core business at UTV and the company is confident of continuing success in this area. “There are indications, albeit fragile that the total television market will enjoy some growth in 2003,” said McCann. “We expect to record a 2% increase in advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2003, compared to a 5% decline for ITV. In these uncertain market conditions, our objective will be to continue to improve our market share.”

Shares in Ulster TV rallied in the wake of today’s results and were up 4.5% at 253.5p by 11.30 this morning.