UTV AGM told of 'excellent progress' despite downturn

UTV chairman, John McGuckian, has told the company's AGM that the broadcaster had put in a "strong performance" despite the difficulties facing the media industry in the advertising hiatus.
During the past year, Mr McGuckian said, ITV has been particularly affected by the advertising downtown with ad revenues down by 13% in the first quarter of 2002. UTV, however, had fared better than the parent company and saw ad revenues dip by only 2% for the year.
"This has been a year… in which group operating profit before goodwill actually improved. While we are not immune to what has been happening in the global advertising marketplace, the measure of a company is not so much how it performs in good times but how it performs in bad times," said Mr McGuckian.
"In the most difficult of years UTV has continued to make excellent progress."
He added that UTV had "significantly outperformed the ITV network", ending 2001 with a record share of advertising revenue. The company was continuing to develop its customer base for UTV Internet in the Republic and Northern Ireland. The chairman lauded the company's performance and improved profitability in the second half of the year which was ahead of original targets.
In the past year, UTV took a 50% stake in a start-up operation in Dublin, Bocom Ltd, and recently reached agreement on the acquisition of Limerick-based Treaty Radio Ltd which, if approved by the regulatory authorities, will be a further step in UTV's stated strategy to create a strong radio presence in Ireland.
UTV's peak-time share of viewing in 2001 was 37.2%, well ahead of the ITV network average of 34.8% and substantially ahead of its nearest competitor BBC NI at 23.3%, the AGM was told. The share for all the satellite channels and Republic of Ireland terrestrial channels in peak was 22%.
UTV, www.utv.co.uk
(GMcG)