Scottish Media Group yesterday reported a 33 per cent fall in interim pre-tax profit to £20m, becoming the latest broadcaster to suffer from the continuing advertising downturn. That led SMG to slash its interim dividend by one-third to 1.5p a share.
Most of the setback occurred at STV and Grampian TV, the main ITV franchises in Scotland, where earnings fell by £6.5m to £12.9m. Turnover for the group, headed by Andrew Flanagan, chief executive, for the six months to 30 June slid 9 per cent to £140m.George Watt, SMG’s finance director, offered few clues about when an upturn might materialise: “The advertising market is very short term at the moment. We believe we have reached the bottom and we are bumping along the bottom, but there is no sign of an upturn.”SMG shares fell to near five-year lows, losing 12.5p to 139p. Other broadcasting stocks also fell with Carlton Communications, likely to drop out of the FTSE 100, losing 20.5p to 236.5p, while Granada shed 13p to 113p.The downturn was also felt at Virgin Radio where sales on a like-for-like basis fell 20 per cent.

Actual sales for the half were £14.6m compared with £13.2m for four months during 2000 after SMG bought the station as part of its £225m acquisition of Ginger Media.SMG’s newspaper operations, principally The Herald based in Glasgow, grew advertising revenue by 3 per cent, but higher newsprint prices saw operating profit fall by £1.1m to £8m. Outdoor and cinema advertising bucked the overall trend with earnings up 40 per cent to £2.6m on a 15 per cent rise in turnover to £15.7m.. Vodafone and Nokia, the mobile phone giants, yesterday offered a glimmer of hope for the struggling telecoms sector. Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone maker, confirmed it was on track to meet third-quarter profit expectations. Vodafone and Nokia, the mobile phone giants, yesterday offered a glimmer of hope for the struggling telecoms sector. Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone maker, confirmed it was on track to meet third-quarter profit expectations.
However, Nokia conceded that sales would be slightly beneath target.

It also said there were signs of an uptick in demand in the crucial US market.Vodafone, meanwhile, said its focus on boosting customer spending rather than growing its customer base should allow it to beat some revenue forecasts.Both statements contradict the misery witnessed by others in the mobile phone industry. Motorola, a US rival, last week warned of flat third-quarter sales while the Swedish group Ericsson said recently it saw no clear signs of a recovery in the market next year.Nokia said that based on developments during the first two months of its third quarter, it expected operating margins to be in the mid-teens and earnings to be within the previously stated range of 0.14 euros to 0.16 euros. However, it expected revenue for the third quarter “to be about 5 per cent lower than the third quarter last year, compared with earlier expectations of 0 to 5 per cent year-on-year growth”.Revenues at the mobile phones division are expected to be at about the same level as in the third quarter of last year, Nokia said, noting it expected its Nokia Networks division would see lower year-on-year sales and profitability.”The ongoing technology transition from mobile voice to mobile data together with the economic instability have increased uncertainty, as some operators are reassessing the timing of their GSM network investments,” the company said.Meanwhile, Chris Gent, Vodafone’s chief executive, told a UBS Warburg conference that he expected customer growth of just 20 per cent this year after four years of 50 per cent-plus growth. “With above 20 per cent customer growth now likely this year and stable ARPU [average revenues per user], we should see higher revenue growth next year than many are projecting,” he said.. British Energy warned yesterday that it could not build a new generation of nuclear power stations unless it was allowed to offload £3bn of its current nuclear liabilities onto the taxpayer. British Energy warned yesterday that it could not build a new generation of nuclear power stations unless it was allowed to offload £3bn of its current nuclear liabilities onto the taxpayer.
The nuclear electricity generator also called on the Government to impose a new “carbon-free” obligation on electricity suppliers, requiring them to take 25 per cent of their requirements from nuclear stations.It estimated that this would make nuclear-generated power around 50 per cent more expensive than current wholesale prices – a cost increase that ultimately must be borne by the consumer, as the price for security and diversity of supply.In its submission to Downing Street’s energy policy review, the company said the Government needed to give the green light now to a £10bn programme to construct 10 new nuclear stations or face the prospect of having to rely on foreign gas for more than half of Britain’s electricity needs by 2025.British Energy is proposing that £2bn worth of liabilities on its balance sheet, which pre-date its privatisation in 1996, should be transferred to the Government’s proposed UK Liabilities Management Agency.It also wants to renegotiate its fuel reprocessing contracts with the state-owned British Nuclear Fuels so that British Energy’s annual bill comes down from £300m a year to £50m.