STV trading in line with expectations

Scottish digital media business, STV, plunged into the red in the first half of 2011 after settling a multi-million pound legal dispute with ITV.Pre-tax profit before exceptionals was up 8% at £6.5m, which translated into earnings per share rising 5% to 16.8p.Revenue was down 5% at £47.2m despite digital revenues jumping 53% to £2.7m.STV plans to resume paying a dividend at the end of the year.The firm said that it was exceeding its target of matching peak time audience with the ITV Network, but production hours and the value of external commissions were both below par.In April STV and ITV settled their legal disputes, which were sparked by STV's decision to opt out of airing some networked programmes.Under the terms of the settlement, totalling £18.0m, STV has paid £7.2m in cash already.Chairman, Richard Findlay, said trading was in line with expectations. "Whilst we remain cautious about the near-term TV advertising market, we have complete confidence that our strategy will continue to deliver growth," he said.STV said its pensions liabilities had continued to reduce and amounted to £8.9m at the end of June, down from £16.2m at the end of 2010.it said the main areas of potential risk going forward were in relation to the regulatory environment, dependence on advertising, performance of the ITV Network and shortfalls within its pension schemes.