Investor Day & Notification -

RNS Number : 3641X

SMG PLC

24 June 2008

 



SMG plc - Analyst and investor day and notification of proposed name change

SMG plc will be hosting a visit to its headquarters in Glasgow for investors and analysts today to provide an update on the core broadcasting business, stv. The presentation will not contain a trading update. 

The Board confirms that trading continues in line with the IMS made on 16 May and the Board remains confident of meeting its 2008 expectations. In addition, as a result of our tax planning, the Board believes that the Group will gain a cash benefit of £10m across the period 2008 to 2011. 

Today's meeting will focus on the Group's growth strategy and new media strategy. A copy of the full presentation will be available in the investor section at www.smg.plc.uk from 12noon today. 

Proposed Name Change

The Board of SMG plc is proposing to rename the company stv Group plc. The proposed name change follows the disposal of Primesight and the completion of the sale of Virgin Radio, scheduled for the 30 June 2008, and fits with the company's strategy to focus on the broadcasting business built around its unique position in Scotland. Information about this proposal and details of the £30m cash return to shareholders will be sent to shareholders in due course.

A summary of today's highlights is below:

The senior SMG management team will update the audience today on the growth plans for the business. SMG is a re-focussed company, centred around the broadcasting; content; and ventures business units. The business is now operationally lean, has a strong commercial focus and maintains creativity at the heart of the company. 

Broadcasting Highlights:

• The brand reach is strong in Scotland with 4 million of the population watching stv every week. Our premier news programmes, Scotland Today and North Tonight continue to outperform the competition with a 26% share and in regional advertising the team continue to deliver double digit growth from our Scottish advertisers. Growth in broadcasting will be delivered by continuing to increase our share of the Scottish display advertising market and margins will continue to improve through operating efficiently.

• We remain on track to deliver our KPI targets for 2008 and beyond.

Ventures Highlights:

• Our Ventures business recently announced a major two year contract with Setanta Sports. Much of the growth in Ventures will be delivered by our digital strategy. Key to this will be the re-launch of our stv.tv website later this summer. stv.tv will have a compelling proposition of full UK national programming - with the same online content rights as ITV.com - supported by rich local Scottish content. The site will offer a best-in-class video experience for simulcast, catch-up and archive viewing through our technology partnership with Brightcove. We will use our 'clean' ITV feed to promote stv.tv to our 4m weekly viewers.

• Our visitor numbers, total online revenue and margin KPIs remain on track. We have upgraded regional transaction based revenues from £2.0m to £3.0m for 2008 and from £5.5m to £7.0m in 2010. We have adjusted the online display advertising from £1.0m to £0.6m for 2008 and from £2.0m to £1.5m for 2010, however, the net impact of these adjustments result in the same overall earnings with increased longer-term targets.

Content Highlights:

• Our content business is now in the top ten UK independent producers with a growth plan to be in the top five by 2010.

• The Content KPI for produced hours has been upgraded to reflect the achievement of the original 2008 target. We have already delivered 11.5 hours of content and secured a further 48.5 hours for 2008. The new KPI is upgraded to 70 hours for 2008 (from 60 hours) and a target of 130+ hours for 2010 (from 130 hours).

Rob Woodward, Chief Executive, said: 'Our core TV business is outperforming and I am confident that the strategy we are executing in regional advertising, content and digital media will deliver significant growth. The new name we propose, stv Group, reflects the company's focus and uniqueness in the Scottish media market.'

Further enquiries:

SMG PLC                                      [phone] 
Rob Woodward, Group Chief Executive 
George Watt, Chief Financial Officer
Debbie Johnston, Head of Communications 

Brunswick Group LLP                 [phone] 
James Hogan 
Simon Sporborg 
Ash Spiegelberg 

 

END

 

 

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