Broadcast News

Bookmark and Share
23/08/2000

SMG ANNOUNCES SUBSTANTIAL PROFITS BOOST

SMG (Scottish Media Group) has announced pre-tax profits of £30m to June 30, continuing a 400 per cent growth over the last five years.
The figures represent a 25 per cent rise from the same period last year, and have been greatly helped by the recent group additions of Ginger Television and Virgin Radio, which added a combined £7.5m profit to the group’s figures.
SMG owns the ITV franchises for Scottish Television and Grampian Television which reach a combined audience 4.6 million viewers. SMG also run ‘s2’, a youth orientated digital channel and STE, the television production division of the company. STE is responsible for the UK’s longest running detective series, ‘Taggart’ and the BAFTA award winning documentary, ‘Lockerbie’.
Chief Executive Andrew Flanagan has stated that SMG plans to raise a further £45m by a 5 per cent share issue to eliminate debt and to expand the group’s investment and acquisition opportunities. The company has also expressed an interest in bidding for Granada Media’s 25 per cent stake in GMTV, in which SMG recently expanded its own holdings to 25 per cent.
The opportunity has arisen following Granada’s soon to be completed merger with United News & Media. Current regulations will force Granada to reduce its GMTV share. There are also indications that SMG will be interested in acquiring the ITV franchise that Granada will be forced to dispose of, possibly HTV.
Carlton, another GMTV shareholder, is likely to compete with SMG on both the GMTV and ITV franchise bids. Speculation that Carlton may be interested in acquiring SMG has been denied by SMG. Granada’s 18.14 per cent share in SMG, however, would make it unlikely for an attempt to be successful.
As well as its broadcasting investments, SMG is also a major player in Scottish publishing and has plans to expand into Internet and new media businesses.
Solidmate Ltd Memory Card Hire London

Top Related Stories
Click here for the latest broadcast news stories.

28/03/2023
Triveni Digital To Share ATSC 3.0 Interactivity Strategies
Triveni Digital has announced that the company's executives will share their ATSC 3.0 expertise and practical deployment strategies at the 2023 NAB Sh
12/09/2023
Imagine IP Experts To Share How SMPTE ST 2110 Works In The Real World
At IBC 2023 (Stand 2.A15), Imagine Communications invites attendees to bring their technical, operational and business questions to Imagine IP experts
08/02/2024
ATG Danmon Completes Television Production System
ATG Danmon has completed a television production system for the Singapore branch of a US-based financial services corporation. The new facility is bei
30/11/2023
Miyagi Television Broadcasting Selects Reidel's Products
Riedel Communications has announced that Miyagi Television Broadcasting, a key broadcaster in the Tohoku area in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture, has chosen
19/06/2023
Hiltron Completes Satellite Television Uplink
Hiltron Communications has completed a satellite television uplink for one of Germany's largest public service broadcasters. Hiltron was selected to c
08/03/2024
Sky Receives Seven Nominations For 2024 Royal Television Society Programme Awards
Sky has received seven nominations for the 2024 Royal Television Society Programme Awards across kids, entertainment, factual and sports programming.
13/10/2023
Avid Joins Roybal School of Film and Television Production Magnet
Avid is continuing its mission to help more people gain skills for successful careers in the entertainment industry as the first technology Founding P
17/08/2023
Riedel Honoured With Television Academy Engineering, Science, and Technology Emmy® Award
Riedel Communications has been named a recipient of the Television Academy's 75th Engineering, Science, and Technology Emmy Awards. Riedel's innovativ
02/10/2001
ITC REPORT REVEALS ELECTION COVERAGE FATIGUE
INTEREST in watching General Election campaign coverage on television reached a low this year, with 70 per cent of viewers reporting that they had lit
14/03/2024
Triveni Digital's Mark Corl To Share ATSC 3.0 Advancements
Triveni Digital has announced that the company's senior vice president of emergent technology development, Mark Corl, will share ATSC 3.0 advancements
17/05/2023
Sky And Sony Pictures Television To Continue Partnership
Sky and Sony Pictures Television (SPT) have agreed a multi-year continuation of their partnership, which will see major SPT feature films and SPT tele
11/12/2006
UTV In Fresh Merger Talks With SMG
UTV have confirmed that they are back in talks with Scottish Media Group (SMG) over a potential merger. In August SMG, the sixth largest programme pro
16/08/2001
‘BIG BROTHER’ PROVED TO BE A BIG BENEFIT FOR E4
‘BIG BROTHER’ was clearly an exceptional piece of event programming demonstrating how well Channel 4 and E4 work alongside each other, but the program
31/08/2006
SMG Rejects Merger Proposals With UTV
Scottish Media Group (SMG) has rejected a merger proposal advanced by UTV. UTV, which owns the Ulster ITV licence and radio station TalkSport, made it
01/02/2024
Ikegami Delivers Camera Systems To Iberian Public Service Television Network
Ikegami Electronics has announced the delivery of 27 UHK-X700 4K-UHD HDR camera systems to a leading Iberian public service television network. The pr