LONDON (Alliance News) - UTV Media PLC Wednesday posted a rise in pretax profit for 2014, although its outlook for 2015 was mixed, citing the further weakening of the euro as a potential drag on its Irish radio advertising, and budget cuts hampering its expectations for television advertising revenue in Northern Ireland.
The Irish broadcaster proposed a final dividend of 5.43 pence, taking its total dividend for the year to 7.25 pence, up from 7.00 pence a year before.
The company posted a pretax profit of GBP17.2 million, up from GBP17.0 million a year before, as revenue rose to GBP116.0 million from GBP107.2 million,
Its talkSPORT business performed strongly in 2014, boosted by the FIFA World Cup. As a result of this strong comparator, UTV expects the business's revenue to be down 2% in the first quarter of the current financial year. However, it said that improved airtime pricing should help it maintain talkSPORT's profitability at the same levels as 2014 despite the expected fall in revenue.
In its Irish radio stations strong audience numbers helped to offset the hit from "the extremely deep advertising recession which Ireland experiences over the last few years", UTV said. It noted that the market started to recover throughout 2014, although the weak euro stemmed this growth somewhat.
For the first quarter of 2015, UTV expects its Irish radio advertising revenues to be broadly flat, although if the euro weakens further it would expect revenue to be down 10%.
The company is mulling the potential sale of some, or all of its Great Britain local radio stations. It expects revenues in these stations to be up by 4% in the first quarter of 2015.
The UK television advertising market is seeing good growth in the first quarter of 2015, UTV said, and it expects overall television advertising revenue from its London office to its Northern Ireland division UTV to be up 8%. Growth from its Dublin office is expected to be up 9%.
However, there is some weakness in the Belfast marketplace due to budget cuts put in place by the Northern Ireland Assembly, leading UTV to forecast a 13% decline in revenue from that office in the quarter. Overall, it expects UTV Northern Ireland's television advertising to rise 3% in the first quarter.
UTV also said it expects to incur losses in the region of GBP6 million in 2015 from its new channel UTV Ireland, due to delays in its launch caused by technical issues.
Shares in UTV are trading down 7.3% at 166.00 pence Wednesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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