Member Info for Slownsteady

(Contd...)

ITV will show its longest ever ad during the tournament — a six-minute Nike commercial featuring Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior — that has been given a special extended slot in the broadcaster’s schedule.

However, ITV has opted not to use the three-minute water break periods in each half that Fifa has opened to advertising. Media regulator Ofcom limits the number of ads the broadcaster can show per hour, while the sport’s governing body had restricted use of advertising slots during water breaks to its sponsors.

The 30 per cent revenue boost gives the company some welcome respite from an advertising market that has been depressed since the outbreak of war in the Middle East in February.

The broadcaster expects ad growth of 10 per cent overall in the second quarter compared with the same period last year — or about £40mn based on total advertising revenues — driven by World Cup games.

However, analysts from JPMorgan warned there was a risk for the rest of the year “of an Iran hangover from higher living costs, lower consumption, higher input prices and interest rates, and lower corporate profitability”.

Separately ITV remains in discussions with Sky regarding the sale of its broadcasting business, which is valued at about £1.6bn. People close to the deal said it could be agreed as early as this month but cautioned that talks continued without a hard deadline.

(Constipation, here's some laxative for you)

ITV set for World Cup ad record as AI groups pile in

Spending by US tech companies and major expansion of 2026 tournament lift revenues at struggling UK broadcaster

ITV is set for a record World Cup advertising windfall as a significantly expanded tournament and an influx of demand from AI companies provide a welcome boost to broadcasters in an otherwise weak ad market.

Kelly Williams, managing director of commercial at ITV, said in an interview that the UK broadcaster’s advertising revenues were about 30 per cent higher than those it generated from the last major football tournament, the European Championships in 2024, when England reached the final.

ITV is holding back some of the prime slots around games later in the World Cup, which become especially valuable if England progress far into the tournament. However, the broadcaster has secured enough advertising income to make the World Cup, which kicks off on Thursday, a record sports tournament.

“This will be the most commercially successful World Cup or major tournament we’ve ever had,” Williams said. “We feel there’s room for that to grow. Hopefully England and Scotland do well.”

Broadcasters around the world are benefiting from Fifa’s decision to expand the tournament — hosted jointly by the US, Canada and Mexico — from 32 to 48 teams. There will be 104 matches this year, compared with 64 at the previous World Cup.

ITV, which shares the UK rights with the BBC, is showing 51 live games, including two of the three England group matches.

Telemundo, which is broadcasting the Spanish-language games in the US, has said it had sold out of key World Cup ad inventory, securing the country’s largest Spanish-language media deals in history.

As well as the greater number of games, an influx of advertising money from AI companies has boosted ITV.

“We’ve got strong support from Gemini, Copilot, OpenAI, Meta, AWS, Apple and Dell,” Williams said. “As audiences fragment, tournaments like this become more valuable because getting big shared audiences is much rarer than it has been,” he added.

Thank you. That's very clear.

I think your first para is in the ballpark, but not sure where you got your 2.1p 'next dividend' from.

Interactive Investor have this to say about NESF in their blurb of 23rd March 2026:

"Meanwhile, the discounts and yields available in the sector are pretty mouth-watering, with the NESF yield coming to around 19% even after the halving of its payout. But some of the trusts that list the biggest discounts have actually thrown in the towel already."

Surely the Divi would have been 19% BEFORE the cut? Any thoughts, anyone?

600p party time...

Contraception must be suffering today...

Well, I for one one will be delighted if we get there and beyond. Let's not tempt fate, eh?

Where's the 600p Party being held, children?

"NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) does not have a fixed percentage of total accounting profits that it must pay out as dividends. Instead, it operates under a policy of paying a covered dividend aimed at providing a sustainable and growing income, generally supported by a dividend cover ratio of 1.1x to 1.3x of its cash earnings. "

Yes I did read that here while researching this. Wasn't sure if it applies to total return.

Have entered this one with 250k shares this morning, but a few other chunky purchases in other family Accounts.

I wouldn't be surprised if the yield drops next year in favour of increased buybacks, but that is ok.

Hello Rogue mate. If I understood you right. I've still got 30k shares in Saga. Haven't sold any yet. No plans to do so in the near future.

It's It's been one of the stars in our ISAs, which have gained just over 56% since the start of 2025.

Cricket and Horseracing to start in a couple of months, looking forward to a couple of my fillies hopefully winning this summer.

Shame the Mum's bedroom incels are going to have to cancel the 'parity party' (oops sorry, £6 party) for this weekend then... DYOR, GLA, ATB, SWMBO

The Yank Momentum Funds. But the momentum has been there for a year now. Anyway, not complaining.

Can I please ask you immature, childish gits to shut the f up about your wretched 600p party and target?

You're tempting fate. Remember the "Parity parties" that had to be cancelled across the City in the 1980s by the American Bankers when they were expecting an exchange rate of one quid to one dollar?

Aspers, far from "rock solid".

Has been in Intensive Care for 5 years now. Kept afloat by huge debt and share issues. But I think we can keep our fingers crossed that hospital release may be a year or two away... vital signs showing promise.

Trading Update

Growth in underlying profit expected to be ahead of guidance

Significant strategic progress including launch of new Insurance partnership

Saga plc (Saga or the Group), the UK's specialist in products and services for people over 50, provides the following update on trading for the period from 1 August 2025 to 28 January 2026.

2025/26 Outlook

· The Group is expected to report an Underlying Profit Before Tax that is ahead of the prior year, and an improvement on our half year guidance.

· Ocean Cruise has continued to deliver an excellent performance, with a strong load factor of 93%, a 2ppt improvement on the 91% previously achieved in the prior year, and a per diem of £394, a 10% increase on the prior year.

· River Cruise Underlying Profit Before Tax has also continued to grow, benefitting from the launch of Spirit of the Moselle, achieving a load factor of 89%, in line with last year, alongside a per diem of £349, which is 7% higher than the prior year.

· Holidays is expected to report a stronger Underlying Profit Before Tax than last year, supported by booked revenue growth of around 13% and passenger growth of 11%. This performance reflects the positive impact of our decision earlier in the year to consolidate our Travel businesses under one management team.

· Insurance Broking outperformed our expectations, with continued growth in policy sales in three out of our four insurance products. Underlying Profit Before Tax is now expected to be marginally higher than last year and ahead of our expectations.

· Trading EBITDA is still expected to be ahead of 2024/25.

· Net Debt is expected to be marginally lower than the half year and significantly lower than the prior year, an improvement on previous guidance. This is supported by the strong trading cash flow and final proceeds from the sale of our Insurance Underwriting business, which were higher than previous guidance. Leverage is now expected to be below 4.0x. This excludes the £60m received from Ageas in December as a result of the new partnership going live. This receipt will temporarily further reduce Net Debt in the short term, pending a corresponding unwinding of working capital in 2026/27.

· In December, Saga Money launched a new and improved instant access savings account as part of our new partnership with NatWest Boxed; further innovative financial products are expected to be launched in 2026.

Looking ahead to 2026/27

· The Ocean Cruise booked1 load factor is 70%, 3ppts ahead of the same point in the prior year, and a per diem of £445, which is 13% ahead.

· The River Cruise booked1 load factor is 59%, 4ppts ahead of the same point in the prior year, and a per diem of £367, which is 3% ahead.

· Holidays booked1 revenue is £132m, 5% ahead of the same point in the prior year, and passengers of 39k, which is 1% ahead.

· Insurance Broking Underlying Profit Befo

Not unless the debt has been substantially reduced and the loans' "Conditions Precedent" are renegotiated. Will watch progress on that.

They may prefer to increaase ship capacity by ordering another.

In the Times today.

https://archive.ph/HHMSB