STV says its diversification strategy and growth targets will be boosted by its recent £24million acquisition of Greenbird Media, producer of shows such as The Hit List and Late Night Lycett.
The broadcaster has reported group adjusted operating profits for the six months to the end of June of £8million, down 33% on 2022. This reflected an expected impact of declines in higher margin linear advertising revenue and inflationary cost pressure.
There was a 21% rise in total revenue of £75.3million for the half year, driven by organic growth in studios and digital.
Chief executive Simon Pitts said: "Our overall financial performance in H1 was impacted by a challenging advertising market and cost inflation, as expected, although looking forward we see a more-encouraging outlook.
"Q3 total advertising is expected to be up 3%-5% driven by the Women's Football World Cup and the Men's Rugby World Cup which starts next week.
"Our business is well positioned to benefit when the advertising market improves and we also see strong profit growth coming through in STV studios in the second half of 2023."
Revenues
Analyst Johnathan Barrett, of Panmure Gordon (PG), told the Daily Business website: "H1 revenues were ahead of PG expectations (£67million) with Studios storming ahead and more than offsetting the soft advertising market.
"EBIT was behind due to the lower advertising revenues (which are high margin) and cost timing in studios profit.
"We do, however,still expect over £6million for full year studios profit.
"The Greenbird acquisition is trading well (seven commission wins since acquisition) adding to H2 support and the full-year effect on 2024 forecasts."
Shares closed yesterday up 3p at 197p.
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was down 42 points at 7,395 shortly after opening this morning, following yesterday's 14-point fall.
Brent crude futures slipped 0.14% to $89.89 a barrel.
Companies reporting today
- Full-year results: Barratt Developments
- Trading updates: Halfords, WH Smith