23rd Jun 2015 13:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - Broadcaster UTV PLC said Tuesday that it now expects its UTV Ireland business to incur losses of GBP11.5 million in 2015 after a "volatile" start to its UTV Ireland television channel, and whilst it is still confident it will create long-term strategic value, the channel will take longer than originally expected to become profitable.
After the channel saw signs of audience growth in the first quarter, this has stalled in the last month, UTV said. After 26 weeks since its launch, audience performance remains volatile, UTV said.
Overall share of commercial impacts is around 11%, lower than the target that was set for the channel's first year of operation.
UTV is undertaking actions to address the audience shortfall, but said this will "take to deliver the required improvement in viewership." It is assuming no "significant" improvement in overall audience levels for the second half of the year.
"The board reaffirms its strategic objective for UTV Ireland to be the second most watched channel in the Republic of Ireland by 2017," UTV said.
As a result UTV has agreed with its bank lender to raise the net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation on its facilities.
Shares in UTV are trading down 6.4% to 151.00 pence on Tuesday, the worst performer in the FTSE All-Share.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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