UTV INTERIMS SHOW PROFITS DROP

UTV have reported a fall in profits according to their interim financial results for the period ended 30 June 2001 which were published on September 17.
The company reported that the fall in profits was caused by the advertising slowdown, and another factor that has caused the drop is costs from their 60 per cent acquisition of County Media in April 2001.
Pre-tax profits for the first six months have fallen from £7.15m to £7m. Television advertising revenue also fell from £19.7m to £18.8m.
Despite this, UTV increased their ITV advertising market share to 2.31 per cent, and outperformed their ITV rivals, who announced a 15 per cent drop in advertising income.
John McCann, Managing Director, UTV said: "This year has been characterised by the already widely-reported slowdown in global advertising expenditure. Despite positive market conditions in Ireland we are not immune to a reduction in national advertising budgets in ITV.
“We expect to continue to outperform the ITV network advertising average and end this year with an improved share of revenue over 2000. We continue to look for suitable opportunities to further position UTV as broad media players throughout Ireland." (CD)