UTV Media plc (“UTV” or “the Company” or “the Group”) Belfast, London & Dublin – 18 March 2015: UTV Media plc today announces preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2014 Financial highlights on continuing operations* . Group revenue of £116.0m (2013 restated: £107.2m) . Pre-tax profits of £17.2m (2013 restated: £17.0m) . Group operating profit of £19.7m (2013: £20.1m) – 2014 includes UTV Ireland start-up costs of £3.0m . Net debt £46.2m (2013: £49.6m) . Diluted adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations of 14.56p (2013 restated: 14.32p) . Proposed final dividend of 5.43p giving a full year dividend of 7.25p (2013: 7.00p) * As appropriate, references to profit include associate income but exclude discontinued operations Operational highlights . Improving macroeconomic environment in the UK and Ireland . Strong audience performances across Radio and Television . talkSPORT revenues of £29.7m (2013: £24.3m) boosted by World Cup . Strategic focus on radio and television – UTV Connect, PropertyPal, UTV Drive and Recruit NI now divested . UTV Ireland launched successfully on 1 January 2015 Prospects highlights . Radio Ireland revenue (local currency) flat (down 10% after adjusting for foreign exchange), Radio GB revenue flat against strong 2014 comparison and Television revenue (excluding UTV Ireland) up 4% . UTV Ireland performance impacted by delays to EPG positions, agency negotiations and slower than expected audience build. Losses for year now anticipated to be in the region of £6M . Foreign exchange headwinds impacting profitability in Ireland John McCann, Group Chief Executive, UTV Media plc, said: “Record audiences for talkSPORT and market leading audiences in both Irish Radio and Television underpin these results, providing confidence that our new venture UTV Ireland, will emulate its older siblings and over time, build a stronger audience base. The significant uplift in GB Radio’s profitability together with the recovery in Irish Radio and Television advertising are particularly pleasing.” 1 Key dates . 14 May 2015 – Annual General Meeting & Interim Management Statement . 29 May 2015 – Record date for payment of dividends . 15 July 2015 – Payment of dividends . 28 August 2015 – Interim Results Announcement For further information contact: Investor Enquiries www.utvmedia.com/investors John McCann, Group CEO +44 (0) 28 9032 8122 Norman McKeown, Group Finance Director +44 (0) 28 9032 8122 Media Enquiries Orla McKibbin, Director of Communications +44 (0) 28 9026 2188 / +44 (0) 7879 666 427 Maitland Martin Barrow +44 (0) 20 7379 5151 / +44 (0) 7843 068 912 2 UTV Media plc Chairman’s Statement Overview Your company made considerable progress during 2014, with turnover growing to £116.0M (2013: £107.2M) and pre-tax profits increasing to £17.2M (2013: £17.0M) even after absorbing pre-operational losses of £3.0M (2013: £0.1M) on our new television station, UTV Ireland, which successfully launched on 1 January 2015. Profit growth of 45% in our GB radio division was particularly strong and it was pleasing to record a return to profit growth in our Irish radio division. Despite the investment in UTV Ireland, which included a lower than budgeted capital expenditure of £5.6M, group net debt reduced by £3.4M. Results and dividends for the year* Group operating profit of £19.7M (2013: £20.1M) was after accounting for pre-operational losses on UTV Ireland of £3.0M (2013: £0.1M). After charging lower net interest costs of £2.4M (2013: £2.9M) and foreign exchange losses of £0.1M (2013: £0.2M), group profit before taxation was £17.2 M (2013: £17.0M). Group net debt was lower at £46.2M (2013: £49.6M). Dividends amounting to £6.8M (2013: £6.7M) were paid during the year, representing a final ordinary dividend for 2014 of 5.25p per share and an interim ordinary dividend for 2014 of 1.82p per share as shown in note 12. A final dividend of £5.2M representing 5.43p per share is proposed for approval at the Annual General Meeting. If approved, warrants in respect of it will be despatched on 15 July 2015 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 29 May 2015. Review of activities With our renewed focus on broadcasting, preparations for the launch of UTV Ireland took centre stage in 2014. A licence was agreed with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, programming was acquired and commissioned, staff were recruited and trained, studio premises were fitted out and agreements were reached with all major platform providers. Although our new channel’s licence is not that of a public service broadcaster, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources designated it as having public service characteristics which facilitated carriage on the DTT platform, thus ensuring universal coverage in Ireland, and prominence on Electronic Programme Guides. Universal coverage and EPG prominence are prerequisites to achieving our ambition that UTV Ireland will be the second most watched channel, after state broadcaster RTE 1, within 2 years of launching. Pre-eminent audience delivery is at the heart of our broadcasting strategy and the Group’s track record in delivering market leading positions in radio in Ireland and in television in Northern Ireland, is already well known, as is its achievement in significantly increasing the audience to talkSPORT. In a statement to the market on 9 January 2015, we confirmed that a review of our strategic options in respect of our GB local radio stations was under way and advised that it may, or may not, lead to the disposal of some, or all, of our GB local radio stations. We also advised that any disposal would not include talkSPORT, Sport Magazine, talkSPORT International and any of our Irish radio stations. Our Irish radio stations continued to deliver impressive audience performances, occupying the number one slot in each of the major urban areas in which we operate, including Dublin. This strong audience delivery mitigated the worst effects of the extremely deep advertising recession which Ireland experienced over the past few years. More importantly, it provides firm foundations for growth as the Irish advertising market recovers. This recovery started to appear as we moved through 2014, though the euro exchange rate provided some headwind to growth. With the tailwind of the FIFA World Cup, talkSPORT performed strongly in 2014, both in terms of audience and financial performance. talkSPORT was the only UK broadcaster to broadcast live commentary of every single World Cup match, a total of 64 games. Audience reach achieved a record high of 3.3M weekly, 50% greater than ten years ago and underlining the continuing popularity of good quality radio. The station’s pure sport focus means that more than four fifths of all talkSPORT listeners are now male and over half are ABC1, underlining its unique appeal to advertisers. Our television channel in Northern Ireland maintained its long-standing position as market leader. Its audience success is built on the well-established formula of high quality local programming packaged around an attractive network schedule within a strong regional brand. Our share of the peaktime audience in Northern Ireland in *as appropriate, references to operating profit include income from associates and joint ventures but exclude discontinued operations. 3 UTV Media plc Chairman’s Statement 2014 was 24.7%, significantly higher than the ITV network average of 21.3% and more than 4 times greater than our nearest commercial competitor, C4. *as appropriate, references to operating profit include income from associates and joint ventures but exclude discontinued operations. 4 UTV Media plc Chairman’s Statement Prospects The year has started in line with our expectations for our established broadcasting assets. talkSPORT’s excellent audience performance underpinned our initiative to seek our advertisers’ support for improved airtime pricing. This should help us to maintain talkSPORT’s profitability in 2015 at the levels achieved in the 2014 FIFA World Cup year. In Q1, talkSPORT’s revenues are expected to be down by 2%. Our GB local radio stations continue to perform well, with 19% growth in listening hours being recorded in the most recent RAJAR research. Q1 airtime revenues are expected to be up by 4%. The recovery in the Irish radio advertising market now seems to be under way although growth is, as yet, reasonably modest. Our stations over time have consistently outperformed the market due to their excellent listenership positions. In the first quarter of 2015, we expect our Irish radio advertising revenues to be broadly flat with further weakening of the euro reducing this to around 10% down. The UK television advertising market is enjoying good growth in Q1 2015 and television advertising revenue derived from London to our Northern Ireland television division, UTV, is expected to be up by 8% in the first quarter. Growth from our Dublin office to UTV is also forecast to be positive at 9% up in Q1. There continues to be some weakness in the Belfast marketplace where budget cuts recently introduced by the Northern Ireland Assembly are depressing government advertising expenditure, leading to a forecast 13% decline in revenue from that office. Overall, UTV Northern Ireland’s television advertising is expected to be up by 3% in Q1. UTV Ireland We were delighted that UTV Ireland met its goal of launching across the Republic of Ireland on 1 January 2015, which it achieved well within budget, in spite of a number of challenges along the critical path. It took us substantially longer than we had anticipated to receive the designation of the channel’s “public service” character which meant that we had very little time before the launch date for engagement with our prospective audience about EPG positions and, where necessary, retuning of DTT boxes.