Capital and Classic FM owner GCap said trading in May was affected by weak consumer confidence and low spends from key advertisers, with total revenues for the month down 14% year on year.
"These difficult market conditions look set to continue into June and July. Visibility remains limited and the GCap Media board continues to take a cautious view on market conditions for the foreseeable future," the company said.
GCap has had a poor start to life following the £700m merger of Capital Radio and GWR, when it blamed low spend in April from traditional top 10 radio advertisers for sharp falls in revenues.
Rival Chrysalis, which owns easy-listening station Heart FM, today reported similar troubles as it said the advertising market remains volatile and continues to be affected by the slowdown in consumer spending.
Chrysalis said its radio revenues for the three months to the end of May have shown a decline of 14.5%, with June expected to be similar.
"The advertising market remains short term with little visibility into July or August," Chrysalis said.
GCap today also announced pro-forma figures for the 12 months to March 31 2005 and, separately, GWR Group for the 12 months to March. It said underlying results, excluding goodwill, amortisation and exceptional items, showed revenues of £245m and underlying pre-tax profit of £39m.
GWR saw revenues up 0.7% year on year to £126.5m. The listing particulars relating to the merger with Capital contained a pre-tax profit forecast by GWR of not less than £16.4m. The actual underlying pre-tax profit before tax was £16.7m.
Despite the poor trading conditions, GCap is riding on a high following its win earlier this month of the new Manchester FM licence, which will see its alternative and indie station Xfm set up in the city.
"We expect to commence broadcasting in early 2006. Xfm will complement GCap's existing portfolio of stations in Manchester which includes Century FM, Capital Gold and Classic FM on analogue and Capital Life, Core and Planet Rock on digital radio," GCap said.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the
.jpg)
.jpg)