Stvg Regulatory News (STVG)

Press Release

7am, 18 April 2012

STV Group plc ("STV")

Interim Management Statement - Quarter 1

The following trading update will be provided to shareholders by STV's Chairman, Richard Findlay, at the Company's Annual General Meeting to be held at 11.00am today.

As stated at our Annual Results in February, we have made an encouraging start to 2012. In early March we announced the agreement of new networking arrangements with ITV through which STV will become an affiliate of the Channel 3 Network. During the period, airtime trading, digital business growth, and performance against our KPI targets are in line with the Board's expectations for the current financial year.

STV's airtime revenues in Q1 have performed slightly ahead of our February trading update, down 3% in total. The national market was ahead of our February trading update, down 6%, and the regional market increased by 12% year on year.

Looking ahead we expect the television advertising market to be relatively flat in April, with STV's total airtime revenues down 5%. Early indications for May are for STV's total airtime revenues to be up 4% year on year.

During Q1 we have seen continued momentum in the growth of STV Productions as the business has secured further commissions across a range of genres with a strong pipeline for the year ahead. Today we announce a further success for the business with the commission of 20 episodes of Celebrity Antiques Road Trip for BBC Two, for delivery this year. This follows the announcement made in February of a two-year deal for production of 120 episodes of ratings success, Antiques Road Trip, across 2012 and 2013.

Additionally during the period, STV Productions also won its first ever commission from BBC Three, with the production of a new panel show pilot, Fake Reaction.  We have confirmed the development of a historical drama series, Wallace, in association with Digital Rights Group (DRG), LA based Creative Media and Nine/8 Entertainment.

We continue to extend our digital profile and early next month we will launch new city sites through STV Local, providing unique content to consumers in Glasgow and Edinburgh, in addition to our locally focused on-air content.

Rob Woodward, Chief Executive Officer of STV Group plc, said: "We are making good progress across our strategic growth areas and we have recently confirmed the agreement of new networking arrangements with ITV. At this early stage of the year, STV Productions is performing well and has secured further commissions. In addition, our digital services continue to deliver strong growth. At the beginning of next month we will launch our new look STV City sites in Glasgow and Edinburgh."