UTV turnover up, profits down

ULSTER TELEVISION saw turnover increase by 14% to £54 million (€79 million) last year. However, profits fell by £0.3 million to £13.6 million as the Belfast-based broadcaster faced higher interest charges and programming costs.

Chairman John B McGuckian said UTV performed strongly in a “very competitive and challenging environment”. UTV outperformed other regional stations in the ITV network by posting a 2.1% increase in advertising revenue. Mr McGuckian was upbeat about current conditions and expected UTV’s advertising to be up by 10% for the first quarter of the current year.

The group has diversified its revenue base by moving into radio and outdoor advertising. It owns Cork's 96FM and 106FM and Limerick's Live 95FM, as well as Dublin easy listening station Q102. Group business development director Scott Taunton said the Cork and Limerick stations recorded a strong performance and the group was considering buying more stations. The group has listenership shares of 48% in Cork and 33% in Limerick.UTV hopes to grow market share in Dublin, where Q102 has 5%, but expects to add listeners after a rebranding exercise that saw the station's old Lite FM name dropped.

The radio division made profits of £2.5 million, £0.5 million more than 2002.

The group’s internet access business also performed well, recording revenues of £3.6 million, almost double the previous year. The division offers dial-up and broadband internet access to customers in Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Interest costs rose to £1.4 million as the group took on extra debt to pay for its acquisitions. Programming costs went up from £6.8 million to £8 million as the ITV network charged UTV more for centrally-produced programmes, such as Coronation Street and The Premiership. However, the group was successful in its attempt to block further increases of this size, which will boost profits in the future.

Mr Taunton said there was some truth in weekend reports linking UTV with the Scottish Media Group (SMG). He denied UTV was about to buy SMG. UTV made a number of attempts to buy the group last year, but SMG's share price had risen since then to a level that made a takeover unattractive.