UTV, the multimedia group which broadcasts radio and television, has announced that its operating profit, before exceptional items, was up 4% at £13 million for the six months to June 30.
The group’s radio operating profit was up by 7% to £6.8 million (2006: £6.4 million) after deducting start-up losses of £1.3 million (2006: £1.4 loss) at two radio stations, Talk 107 in Edinburgh and U105 in Belfast.
Its television operating profit was £5.6 million, whilst its new media operating profit was up 25% to £0.6 million
John McCann, UTV group chief executive, said: “UTV has again performed strongly in a challenging period for the media industry. I am particularly pleased with the performance of the television and UK radio divisions which have once again outpaced their peers.
“While the performance of Irish radio in Q2 was disappointing, we have taken steps to address this and are confident of an improvement in the second half of this year.
“Radio is becoming increasingly important to the group, and now contributes 55% of group revenues. We are pleased with the progress being made by talkSPORT, and delighted to have been part of the C4 consortium which won the licence to operate the UK’s second national commercial DAB multiplex.
“The outlook for Q3 is positive. We expect growth in UK and Irish radio advertising markets and television should start to benefit from better programming. While we expect market conditions to remain challenging, we remain confident that we will continue to deliver solid earnings growth.”
It has recently been rumoured that UTV may bid for Emap’s radio division, following Emap’s announcement that it is reviewing its portfolio of assets (see GCap Could Buy Emap’s Radio Assets).
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