Capital Sees Revenues Down 5% In First Half
Capital Radio has said that it expects its radio revenues to decline by 3% in the three months to March 2003, following a 6% drop in the final quarter of last year (see Capital Radio Ad Revenue Falls 6% In Q4 2002).
“The short term market is very uncertain and we remain cautious regarding future advertising demand. We continue to manage the cost base of our business on the assumption that the advertising market remains under pressure for the rest of our financial year,” said the statement.
Analysts at Merrill Lynch believe that Capital is under-performing the general radio market and that it is losing market share in London to ‘more focused’ competition from EMAP (Kiss – younger listeners) and Chrysalis (Heart – older listeners). Virgin’s new marketing campaign is also unlikely to help Capital, says Merrill.
Shares in the group were down by 6.4% at 402.5p by 9.45am today.
