C5 Retune Will Cost £150m

In a trading statement today Pearson confirmed that the retuning costs of Channel 5 have reached £150m, up considerably from the £50m forecast.

Initial coverage of the total population at the March launch will be approximately 65%. The recent award of an additional broadcast frequency, channel 35, will then increase coverage to 80% by the end of 1997. It is expected however that revenue from these extra homes will recover their retuning costs within two years and that overall the business pan shows significantly higher rates of return than at the time of the original bid. Pearson TV has now sold Channel 5 new programming worth £24m for its first year and has secured the contract to transmit the C5 signal from its new Stephen Street offices.

Pearson also said that Financial Times Newspapers had felt the benefit of a restructure and had increased its international distribution while Pearson TV had made “a strong advance in operating profit”.

The trading statement was well received by the City, with Pearson’s shareprice up 22 to 711.5p at 16:30.

Pearson: 0171 411 2000