UTV profits drop by £0.5m in year

UTV has just published its annual report

The UTV group made profits of just over £20m last year - down by £500,000 on the previous year.

Television operating profits were down by 24%, but profits from radio and new media profits were up, according to its annual report.

UTV made cuts in its workforce recently which, it says, should help save £5m in the coming year

Chief Executive John McCann said he was confident of the operational and financial strength of the company.

"The advertising sector is feeling the full force of the downturn and clearly that is an issue we are actively addressing," he said.

"We moved early to raise capital and reduce debt and have aggressively cut costs throughout the business."

The majority of UTV's profits now come from its radio operations across the UK and Ireland.

UTV chairman John B McGuckian said in common with the rest of the sector they expected advertising revenues to fall sharply in the first part of this year.