Today FM owners strike positive note on sales

TODAY FM owner Scottish Radio Holdings’s Irish businesses are not performing as well as its British assets, where full year sales are expected to rise 18% for the full year.

SRH, Scotland’s biggest commercial radio broadcaster, has extensive Irish media assets including the Kilkenny People, Nationalist & Munster Advertiser, Tipperary Star, Leitrim Observer, Longford Leader, Today FM, and Downtown Radio in Belfast.

Scottish Radio Holdings plc chief executive Richard Findlay said its Irish operations are doing a little better than expected but a little behind the growth in Britain.

Mr Findlay is also leading SRH’s bid for Trinity Mirror’s Northern Irish newspapers, which it believes would fit with its portfolio of 43 weekly titles in Scotland and Ireland. He said SRH were only interested in the weekly titles on offer and not the daily titles.

Excluding acquisitions and asset sales, SRH radio revenue in the 12 months ending September 30 will probably increase 6% while publishing sales will rise 4% from a year earlier, the company said in a trading statement, adding: “The immediate outlook for growth in our national advertising revenue is encouraging.”

SRH reported revenues up 28% at £42.3m for the first six months of the year and is expecting full-year revenues, including acquisitions, to be up 18% from the £63.7m it reported last year.

The upbeat statement is in sharp contrast with updates last week from Capital Radio, with revenues down 4%, and GWR, whose Classic FM station lost 10% in advertising revenues.

“The board continues to view prospects with confidence and believes the company remains in a strong position to grow the two divisions (radio and newspapers) both organically and by acquisition,” SRH said.