Ulster TV reported financial results for the year ended December 31 1996, which showed that pre-tax profits reached £9m (up from £8.2m last year) on the back of turnover up from £34.2m to £34.5m.
Ad revenue however only increased by 2.4% to £33.2m, compared with television operating profit which increased 9.4% to £7m. UTV said that the low level of increase had been expected as a consequence of some major advertisers tightening their budgets and the inclusion in 1995 of some non-recurring campaign advertising.
Despite achieving a high viewing share of 42% (all time), compared with an ITV network viewing share of 35%, this was not reflected in the company’s ad revenue performance. UTV blame this on the ‘equal impact’ system whereby, compared with a low viewing ITV region, less airtime has to be bought in a higher viewing region in order to achieve an equal weight of viewing. The UTV board calls this system “perverse” but expects it to diminish as competition increases and stronger viewing figures will in future translate more directly to higher ad revenue income.
UTV: 01232 328122
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