Revenue from UTV's Irish radio operations will be lower than expected in the first half of the year, shareholders were told at the company's agm yesterday, writes Carissa Caseyin Belfast.

Chairman John McGuckian said a short-term weakness in local sales would mean the division would see revenue growth of just 2 per cent for the first six months against a previous forecast of 6 per cent.

Chief executive John McCann said growth in the Irish radio operations should pick up over the coming quarters. "You can get variations in the local market that can reverse themselves in the next quarter," he said.

UTV owns Dublin's Q102 and 96FM, Cork's 103FM, Live 95FM in Limerick, LMFM in Louth and Meath and Belfast's U105.

Mr McCann also said UTV was interested in bidding for the Irish assets of UK media group Emap, which include Today FM, FM104 and Highland Radio in Donegal. "We haven't taken a decision yet as to what if anything we're bidding," he added.

Regarding last year's aborted merger talks with Scottish Media Group (SMG), Mr McCann said there were no plans to resurrect a deal in the foreseeable future, but he pointed out that there was a new management team at SMG. "Nothing has changed on that front yet," he added.

In the trading statement at yesterday's agm, the company said first-half revenues for its television division are expected to fall by 1 per cent, compared to an anticipated fall of 10 per cent for the ITV network as a whole. UTV now has a record share of 3 per cent of the overall ITV market.

"We have a bigger share of a smaller cake," said Mr McCann, who blamed the UK's Contracts Rights Renewal (CRR) system, which enables advertisers to secure discounted rates for the overall fall in revenues. "ITV is lobbying hard to have that removed or amended. There's no prospect of that changing. It's certainly in place for this year and probably into next year," he said.

UTV's strong regional ratings and the fact that 55 per cent of television revenues come from Ireland mean the CRR system has had less impact on the company.

Its UK radio revenue is forecast to be broadly flat for the first six months of this year. Talksport, a radio station UTV acquired when it bought the Wireless Group, is expected to be up 1 per cent, after an 18 per cent increase in turnover last year.

"We're managing to get across to advertisers that Talksport has not just a strong audience but a great demographic. Male audiences are notoriously difficult to get and ABC1 male audiences in particular," said Mr McCann.