7DIG.L Regulatory News (7DIG)

6 Apr 2006 07:00

UBC Media Group PLC06 April 2006 UBC Media Group plc ("UBC" or "the Company") Trading Update UBC has today issued the following Trading Update in advance of the announcementof its results for the year ended 31 March 2006 on 26 June 2006: UBC expects to deliver strong preliminary results with revenues up 25% on lastyear. The Board is pleased with the performance of the company and believes theprospects for the forthcoming year are positive. In particular, the commercialradio network advertising and programming business continues significantly tooutperform the sector as advertisers seek national solutions in a fragmentingdigital marketplace. We expect to see like for like growth in advertisingrevenues of around 21% compared to an average decline across the commercialradio industry of around 5%. UBC is pleased also to announce today that EMAP Radio has agreed that the 14radio stations in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which it acquired last year,will begin carrying UBC's Network Drive advertiser funded service of traffic andtravel news with immediate effect. Simultaneously, UBC has concluded a newcontract with GCap Media to provide travel information to its analogue anddigital radio stations. National radio advertising has been a major area of growth for the Company forthe past two years and now represents over 50% of UBC's revenues. UBC continuesto increase its market share, and demand from advertisers remains as strong asit has been for the last twelve months. UBC is currently benefiting from the growth in 'Podcasting' and is nowproducing Podcast audio programmes for customers such as The Times and The Sunand we expect to see this as an area of future growth. Commenting on the Company's strong performance in the year, Simon Cole, ChiefExecutive of UBC said, "The same audience fragmentation which creates severe challenges for many in thecommercial radio industry creates opportunities for UBC's advertising sales arm.Our performance shows that advertisers are increasingly looking for packages,such as those offered by UBC, that run across many different stations. We arealso continuing to pursue new ways of generating revenues, through data servicessuch as music downloading. Our investment in the development of a musicdownloading service continues to make good progress." - ends - For further information, please contact: Simon Cole, CEO, UBC Media Group plc Tel: 020 7453 1600 Tim Allan, Portland Tel: 020 7404 5344 About UBC Media Group UBC Media Group plc is a UK public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange'sAIM market. The Group is a market leader in the supply of content to the radio,Internet and digital television industries in the UK. In addition to theentertainment and traffic and travel news services provided to commercial radio,the Group is the largest independent producer of radio programming for the BBC. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange