The Euro 2016 football championships also helped boost TalkSport’s audience to 3.3m listeners a week.
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Pre-tax profit in the six months to the end of…
Wireless Group – which was formally UTV Media – has reported a 23% increase in its revenues as they grew to £38m during the first half of 2016.
Revenue over the six months was up more than 7% at its Radio GB arm to £27.6m, while revenue at its Irish radio stations also rose 1% slightly to £8.9m.
Uncertainty in the lead-up to the European Union referendum, on 23 June, is widely thought to have had a negative impact on advertising expenditure. The company sold off its TV assets to ITV for £100 million in February.
“Whilst it is still unclear what impact the uncertainty created by Brexit might have on advertising revenues in the all-important fourth quarter, including in Ireland, the group now anticipates a full-year outturn broadly in line with expectations”, chairman Richard Huntingford said.
He added that “good progress” is being made in securing regulatory clearances in connection with the News Corp offer.
Meanwhile, the station’s global broadcasting business achieved double digit sales and profit growth in the first half of the year, the company said.
TalkSport has the radio and digital broadcasting rights to the Premier League and the FA Cup.
“In our local stations [in GB] and in Ireland, advertising trends were softer as we moved towards the referendum in the second quarter”, the group said.
That sale followed a year of haemorrhaging losses at the UTV Ireland television station.
“Whilst it is still unclear what impact the uncertainty created by Brexit might have on advertising revenues in the all-important fourth quarter, including in Ireland, the group now anticipates a full-year outturn broadly in line with expectations”.
Northern Ireland personality Colin Murray resigned as a talkSPORT host following the purchase by News Corp, objecting to its links to The Sun.
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Group chairman Richard Huntingford remained confident the group would meet its annual goals, although he conceded it was too soon to determine what impact the pro-Brexit vote would have on revenues.
