Scottish Radio Sees Airtime Revenue Up 6% In 2003
Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) has become the latest radio group to report a strong set of financial results this week, following good postings from GWR (see GWR Profits Treble With Strong Local Group Performance) and Chysalis (see Chrysalis Profits Surge As Outperformance Continues).
Group turnover was up by 18% to £83.5 million, whilst total operating profit rose by 26% to £19.0 million. Pre-tax profits came in at £11.8 million, up substantially on last year’s loss of £13.5 million.
SRH says that it is continuing to explore other opportunities for expansion, following the proposed acquisition of FM104 in Dublin (see SRH Swoops For Dublin Station) and the purchase of Vibe 101 and Vibe FM earlier in the year (see GWR Sells Vibe Following Competition Rebuttal).
Score Press The group’s regional newspaper publishing division, Score Press, saw like for like revenues rise by 4% year on year, with operating profit up 30% at £9.6 million.
Score Press has concentrations of interest in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland publishing 15 local papers Scotland, 23 in Northern Ireland and 5 in the Republic of Ireland. Advertising revenues across the titles were up 5%, whilst circulation revenue rose by 2%.
Outlook SRH says that trading for the first two months of the new financial year has shown an increase in like for like radio revenues of 9% and press revenues of 3%.
Commenting on the results, SRH chairman Lord Gordon of Strathblane said: “These results underline the strength of the SRH group and the strong growth in revenues and operating profits in our radio and press divisions is extremely encouraging. Both divisions produced outstanding performances during a year of still challenging market conditions.
“SRH is well placed for continued growth with its portfolio of radio stations in recognised geographical marketing areas and well-established press titles. The new financial year has started well with group revenues from continuing operations 11% ahead of the same period last year”.
Shares in Scottish Radio Holdings were up by 4.0% at 840p by mid-morning today.
