Scottish broadcaster STV Group plc, the owner of STV has published its interim results, and reported an 84% drop in pre-tax profits.
Despite the impact of the economy on advertising revenue, the company says it is on track to meet most of its key targets.
As a group, STV reported a fall in pre-tax profits from £4.5million to £700,000 in the first six months of 2009 compared to the same period in the previous year, and a fall in revenue from £75.6million to £48.8million, Operating profit fell to £2.2million from £5.7million in the same period in 2008.
The decline in advertising revenue is being blamed on the recession and the company has been hit by the same difficulties that hit ITV, but the company says that they are on track to be in a better position in both national and Scottish sales in the third quarter.
During the first half of 2009, trading met the expectations of the board and, despite difficulties on account of the economy, the company says it is continuing to deliver a strong performance.
The broadcaster says it has been taking greater control of the schedule and opting out of more network ITV programmes, and broadcasting more programmes specifically for a Scottish audience instead.
This has seen programmes like The Bill no longer being broadcast on the channel, but the move has had successes with programmes like The Hour outperforming programmes being broadcast elsewhere in the ITV network.
The company has also won commissions for programmes for other broadcasters including Sky Real Lives, ITV2 and ITV4, as well as its first commission for a series for the BBC. They are in discussion with ITV over new episodes of Taggart, and are confident about the future of the top-rating series.
The stv.tv website has continued to grow and now has over 100,000 registered users, a four-fold increase in visitors to the site year on year.
Rob Woodward, Chief Executive Officer at STV said: "STV is operationally lean, and we are developing a vibrant, diverse and relevant broadcasting schedule for Scotland.
“Combined with our growing digital business and a revitalised content team, this places us in a strong position to address the challenges of the advertising market and to deliver on expectations."
STV's peak time audience share continues to be higher than the network audience share, and the broadcasting business remains profitable, with Scottish sales continuing to outperform national markets.
