8th Dec 2005 10:00
SMG PLC08 December 2005 SMG Analyst Event & Trading Update SMG plc ("SMG") will hold a presentation for City analysts at its offices at1 Golden Square, London, today (Thursday, 8 December). The purpose of thepresentation is to provide analysts with background on SMG's businesses and themarkets in which they operate. Management will take this opportunity to report that SMG continues to performwell, despite a background of soft advertising markets in the second half of2005. Specifically, management will report as follows: Television Broadcasting - SMG's stations (Scottish TV & Grampian TV) are expected tooutperform the ITV Network for the year as a whole, both in revenue and audienceterms. However, the regional television advertising market has continued to beslow in the second half of the year. Network Productions & Solutions - the Group has continued to display good growthacross the year, as a result of new commissions and contract wins. Radio Virgin Radio has consistently outperformed a difficult radio market andcontinues to show strong year on year revenue growth. Further improvements inaudiences have been achieved as well as a strong initial performance from itsfamily of digital stations. Out of Home Outdoor - this market has seen further growth in 2005 and Primesight hascontinued to grow in line with management's expectations. Cinema - while audiences are expected to improve in Q4, due to the stronger filmschedule, admissions for the year to date are down on 2004. Pearl & Dean'srevenue will show some growth for the year through increased share of cinemascreens, but profit will be impacted by higher cinema rental guarantees. Pearl & Dean has meanwhile strengthened its relationship with its largestexhibitor, Vue Cinemas, who account for 16% of the UK cinema market, by signinga two year contract extension, to the end of 2010. Overall, SMG's management expects the Group to perform broadly in line with theconsensus of analysts' forecasts for 2005. Further enquiries: Callum Spreng 0141 300 3640Corporate Affairs DirectorSMG plc This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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