Stvg Regulatory News (STVG)

3 Jun 2005 09:55

SMG PLC03 June 2005 SMG Chairman's AGM Statement The following statement will be made by SMG's Chairman, Chris Masters, attoday's Annual General Meeting to be held at 12 noon:- Progress in 2005 has been good - both in terms of operational achievements andtrading performance. There is considerable positive momentum across each of our businesses, which hasmanifested itself in a number of successes in recent weeks. In Television our studios have rarely been busier. We have just reached the endof a successful six week run of our live ITV network show, People's Court, andhave started filming another network show, Uncle Dad, for Children's ITV.Meanwhile on location in Glasgow we are currently filming the 75th episode ofTaggart - part of a new two-year commission for the UK's longest-running policedrama. Our television production facilities business has now successfully reached theend of its first season for Setanta, which included the simultaneous coverage ofthe two matches that decided the outcome of the Scottish Premier League. Whilein our broadcast business we await the outcome of OFCOM, our regulator's reviewof Public Service Broadcasting, which will establish if our plans for enhancingthe news service we provide across Scottish and Grampian TV will be viable. At Pearl & Dean, part of our Out of Home Division, winning the Ster Centurycinema contract, alongside two independent chains, has taken our market share to40%. This will go some way towards mitigating the effect of the loss of the UGCcontract when this takes effect in 2006. Its sister business, Primesight outdoor advertising, continues to thrive andjust recently signed its biggest ever single booking of over £0.5 million. Inaddition we are continuing to roll out our large format, high quality Backlightpanels in cities across the UK. In Radio, we have made excellent progress on a number of fronts. Listeningperformance on Virgin Radio has grown - by some 20% in comparison to last year -and our two new digital stations have achieved over 1.3 million listening hoursbetween them since their launch last autumn. We have also been successful inattracting some top grade talent to the business - Fru Hazlitt, the new ChiefExecutive, will be joining us in the late summer and Christian O'Connell, anaward winning radio presenter, is set to go on air with a new breakfast show inthe New Year. On the trading front, prospects for 2005 remain encouraging. Although the strongfirst quarter, reported at the time of our preliminary results in March, hasbeen followed by more moderated growth in a quieter Q2, this was, at least inpart, anticipated in light of the early Easter, the general election and theeffect on comparatives of Euro 2004. That said, there is undoubtedly morecaution on the part of advertisers due to the slowdown in consumer spending.This has led to the market becoming more short term but, as yet, we have notseen evidence of a major downturn in advertising spending. Our businessescontinue to see growth and we remain cautiously optimistic that we will achieveour current expectations for the Group in 2005. Chris MastersChairmanSMG plc 3 June, 2005 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange