Interim Management Statement

UTV Media plc - Interim Management Statement This Interim Management Statement covers the period from the beginning of theGroup's current financial year, 1 January 2014 to the date of this announcementand incorporates the Group's nine month trading period ended 30 September 2014. 9 months to end September 2014 2013 % Change £m £m Group Revenue 84,711 77,447 9% Radio GB 42,070 36,668 15% Radio Ireland 14,750 14,489 2% Television 27,891 26,290 6% In the first nine months of 2014, the more positive economic conditions in boththe UK and Ireland helped to generate Group revenue growth of 9%, with thestimulus of the 2014 FIFA World Cup offsetting adverse currency movements. Thisstrong revenue growth enabled us to reduce net debt by £3.2m to £45.9m,providing a sound foundation for funding the pre-start-up costs of our newtelevision station, UTV Ireland. Radio GB Radio GB revenues grew by 15% in the nine months to September. The World Cuphelped to lift talkSPORT's revenue by 23%, outperforming a national marketwhich was up by 8%. Revenues from our local radio stations increased by 2%compared to a market growth of 3%. In Q4 we anticipate Radio GB revenues will increase by 7%, with talkSPORT up by11% and local radio station revenues growing by 2%. Radio Ireland Radio Ireland revenues grew by 6% in the nine months to September on a constantcurrency basis, 2% including sterling/euro foreign exchange movement. Thisagain represents an outperformance of the Irish commercial radio market whichwas estimated to be up by around 2% (in local currency) in the same period. In Q4 we anticipate Radio Ireland revenues will decrease by 1% on a constantcurrency basis, with the impact of the strength of sterling converting thisinto a decline of 7%. Television Television revenues grew by 6% in the nine months to September. Excluding Tibusand Simply Zesty, which grew by a combined 16%, our core Television businessgrew by 5%. Within this our London NAR (Net Advertising Revenue) increased by6% and our Irish offices NAR grew by 4%. In Q4 we anticipate Television revenues will increase by 4%, with coreTelevision growing by 2% (London NAR up 2% and Irish offices NAR up 1%) and thecombination of Tibus and Simply Zesty growing by 31%. Outlook Group revenue growth has eased in Q4 to 3%, with a further strengthening insterling, a tougher 2013 comparator and a reduction in Government televisionadvertising in Northern Ireland combining to temper growth in this quarter.Continuing uncertainty around budgetary constraints in the Northern IrelandAssembly will provide some headwind in television advertising in the early partof 2015. Our main focus of activity continues to be the strategically important launchof our new television channel, UTV Ireland, in January 2015. Plans are welladvanced on transmission and distribution infrastructure, key staff have beenappointed, programmes commissioned and the Dublin studio is now ready. The next scheduled announcement of financial information by UTV Media plc willbe the release of our Preliminary Announcement (to 31 December 2014) which isprovisionally scheduled for 18 March 2015. Enquiries Orla McKibbin, Director of Communications +44 (0) 28 9026 2188 / +44 (0) 7879 666 427 Martin Barrow, Maitland +44 (0) 20 7379 5151 About UTV UTV Media plc is one of the most successful media companies in the UK andIreland incorporating Radio and Television. UTV Radio GB operates the no. 1commercial national speech station - talkSPORT, 13 Independent Local RadioStations (ILRs) and a number of digital radio multiplexes throughout GB.talkSPORT is Global Audio Partner of the Barclays Premier League through to2019 and also incorporates Sport magazine. UTV Radio Ireland is the largestoperator of ILRs in Ireland. UTV Television is the Channel 3 licensee forNorthern Ireland and has the highest audience penetration locally. The divisionalso includes a specialist digital services business and full service digitalagency. Forward-looking Statements Figures presented in this interim management statement are not audited. Thisannouncement contains certain forward-looking statements with regards to thefinancial condition and results of the operations of UTV Media plc. Thesestatements and forecasts involve risk factors which are associated with, butare not exclusive to, the economic and business circumstances occurring fromtime to time in the countries and sectors in which the Group operates. Theseforward-looking statements are made only as at the date of this announcement.Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast. Otherthan required by law, UTV Media plc undertakes no obligation to update theforward-looking statements.