Scottish broadcaster, STV, has reported a ten per cent increase in advertising revenue between the beginning of July and the end of September, compared to 12 months previously.
In an interim management statement, STV – which now describes itself as 'Scotland's digital media company' – describes a “sustained improvement in airtime market with growth continuing in Q3 and into Q4″.
As well as its Q3 airtime figure being up ten per cent on 12 months previously, it says it expect the figure for October to be between 15 and 20 per cent and for November to be between five and ten per cent.
The statement also claims the company's digital strategy “continues to progress, with all usage metrics growing strongly”, adding: “STV Local, our network of hyper local websites, was successfully launched in September and the roll out continues with the STV Local platform targeted to cover around 25 per cent of the Scottish population by the end of Q4.”
The statement concludes: “Trading and the performance of the business are meeting our expectations.”
As to a long-running legal wrangle with ITV – ITV seeking compensation for network programmes not broadcast by STV; STV pursuing, among other things, issues to do with media rights – the statement says: “There has been no change in the status of the litigation between STV and ITV plc and ITV Network since the last update.”
The statement quotes company chief executive, Rob Woodward, saying: “The improved market conditions evident during the first half of the year have continued to prevail and trading in the third quarter reflects the general improvement in the airtime market and the continuing delivery of our digital strategy.
“We are delivering performance growth across all areas of the business and, during the period, we have launched a successful pilot of STV Local. This initiative forms a key part of our digital strategy to become the leading provider of local online services in Scotland and we will now roll this out more widely across other areas of the country.”
Company chair, Richard Findlay, is further quoted, saying: “Whilst the longer term macro-economic outlook is uncertain, we are continuing to deliver growth across the business and achieve targeted levels of traffic to our digital platforms.”
