YTTV TO DEFER RESULTS/LWT SPECULATION

Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television will not announce its results today as expected, but has deferred the announcement until late January.

The company warned last month that it was likely to announce a loss because of problems on advertising sales. It is expected that pre-tax losses are unlikely to exceed £9.5m.

Meanwhile speculation is rife over any plans LWT may have to block Granada’s hostile bid. The Yorkshire board is understood to have given permission for LWT to explore the possibility of a bid to take over Yorkshire; under the same proposals Anglia would buy Tyne- Tees. This would therefore prevent Granada from being able to take over LWT. LWT has to release the defence document to the shareholders by next Monday.

If the defence deal is confirmed, then as soon as government ownership rules allow, LWT, Yorkshire, Tyne-Tees and Anglia could be brought together; this would create the largest television grouping in the ITV network.