talkSPORT has seen a 26 per cent rise in sales in 2012, as owner UTV Media posts pre-tax profits of £21m, down 1%.
It’s a vast contrast from UTV’s television business which was down 39 per cent in the same period.
The group said Radio GB operating profit is up 5% to £13.0m compared with £12.4m in 2011. Excluding talkSPORT International, Radio GB operating profit is up 12%.
Operational Highlights include talkSPORT signing a deal for Barclays Premier League worldwide audio broadcasting rights to 2016 and the worldwide commercial radio rights to FA Cup and Capital One Cup.
Chairman Richard Huntingford said: Our local radio stations in GB attract 1.2 million listeners weekly by focussing on providing local content. That local content is attractive not only to local listeners, but also to local advertisers, a fact which the Competition Commission noted recently in its preliminary findings on the Global/GMG merger. However, while local advertising in 2012 performed strongly for us, up by 9%, national advertising on our local radio stations didn’t fare as well, decreasing by 9%.
Posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 at 11:45 pm by RadioToday UK