HTV Hit By Poor Sales Performance

HTV has expressed dissatisfaction with TSMS’s trading performance over 1996 as its share of ad revenue fell from 6.01% to 5.84%. Although revenue increased 1.6% from £95.3m to £96.8m, HTV’s licence payments increased 2.1%. HTV has said that it will be signing a new contract with its sales house which will put in place a system of rising performance targets to try and improve TSMS’s efficiency. These targets will determine the amount of fees payable to TSMS by HTV.

HTV also blamed a national “pattern of activity” which saw an increase in sales, especially telecoms ad spend, moving to London. The company is confident however that the capital will become saturated with the “telecoms war” and the activity will roll out nationally.

Overall 1996 was a disappointing year for HTV, with turnover increasing 3.2% to £139.3m and pre-tax profits falling from £12.1m to £9.9m. Profits were hit by an exceptional charge of £2.1m due to the costs of introducing digital technology to the group’s facilities. Profits last year showed an increase of 66%.

A major deal was also announced with Warner Brothers, creating an alliance between the US company and HTV’s production company Harvest Entertainment. The two will be working on an animated version of Zorro scheduled for an Autumn US release. Operating profits at Harvest grew 24% to £5.6m in 1996.

At 11.00 HTV’s shares had fallen 10p to 350.5p.

HTV: 01222 590590