STV reports steady growth in quarterly ad revenues

● Describes The Victim drama series as landmark ● But broadcaster suffers pay report blow at meeting

Broadcaster STV Group has flagged a resilient advertising market and posted a doubledigit hike in digital revenues.

However, the group’s shareholders yesterday registered their disapproval at chief executive Simon Pitts’ pay packet, dealing a blow at its annual general meeting.

Some 29.5 per cent of investors voted against the firm’s remuneration report, which included a £645,000 “golden hello” awarded to Pitts when he joined from ITV.

The figure, part of a “buy-out package” paid to compensate the boss for forfeited remuneration from his previous employer, consisted of a cash payment of £187,000, a share award of £56,000 and deferred stock.

Pitts last year banked £1.5 million, which included a £400,000 basic salary, an annual bonus of £359,000 and £80,000 of pension payments.

In a trading update, the Glasgow-based group said that it expects advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2019 to grow by 1 per cent to 2 per cent. It added that the growth reflects “increasing resilience in the advertising market”.

Nationaladvertisingrevenue is tipped to come in ahead of previous guidance, down by just 1 per cent to 2 per cent.

Regional advertising continues to perform strongly, STV told investors, and is set to rise by 20 per cent to 25 per cent, helped by the group’s partnerships with more than 130 Scottish advertisers – more than half of whom are new to TV.

Digital revenues are expected to be up 15 per cent to 20 per cent, and the firm said that its production business was performing in line with expectations and had secured by the end of the first quarter revenue equivalent to more than 60 per cent of the total achieved in 2018.

The group said STV Player “continues to grow strongly”, with online viewing up 20 per cent and streams up 28 per cent in the first quarter driven by hit dramas such as Manhunt, Cheat and The Bay.

Pitts said: “We have made a strong start to 2019, with TV and online viewing levels continuing their positive momentum from 2018 and total advertising revenue also growing, demonstrating STV’S increasing resilience in the advertising market even in an uncertain economic climate.

“Our STV Growth Fund goes from strength to strength, underpinning strong regional advertising sales and bringing new advertisers to television for the first time.

“We are immensely proud of our new Scottish drama series – The Victim – which aired on BBC1 earlier this month to huge critical and popular acclaim and represents just the sort of landmark programming we want to do more of in future.”

The group confirmed that Lindsay Dixon will take up her appointment as chief financial officer on 21 May as George Watt steps down.