UTV PLANS FURTHER EXPANSION

SPEAKING at UTV's Annual General Meeting on June 5, Chairman John B. McGuckian highlighted UTV's achievements of the past year, which included a 13 per cent increase in group profits as well as laying the foundations for the development of UTV into a broader media company.
The acquisition of 60 per cent of County Media was completed on April 12 and audited accounts for the year ended December 31 2000 showed operating profits before goodwill of £IR 2.3 million a turnover of £IR 6.4 million. Strong growth in radio advertising revenue has been maintained into the early months of 2001 and, despite the downturn in advertising revenue being experienced elsewhere, prospects for improved profitability in County Media are good.
UTV Internet has built a substantial customer base across Ireland since its launch in June last year and will use the company's presence in television, and radio, to further promote its Internet offerings. UTV Internet is on course to achieve its' stated objective of moving into profitability in the second half of the year.
McGuckian also referred to the UK downturn in TV advertising. He said: "Despite positive market conditions in Ireland and a strong ratings performance, we are not immune to a reduction in national advertising budgets on ITV and hence, we expect there will be a decrease in our advertising revenue in the first half. Nevertheless, the scale of this decrease, an estimated 6 per cent in the six months to the end of June, will be considerably less than the anticipated ITV average of 15 per cent and will leave us well placed to take advantage of any upturn in the second half. Our share of the ITV advertising market, therefore, is expected to be a record 2.10 per cent in the six months ended 30 June 2001."
McGuckian went on to say that the company is in good shape and ready to make progress in developing new initiatives. (CD)