{"id":782510,"date":"2026-09-25T20:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T20:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782510\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T20:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T20:20:11","slug":"utv-reports-first-annual-loss-in-a-decade-after-20-revenue-slump-last-year-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782510\/","title":{"rendered":"UTV reports first annual loss in a decade after 20% revenue slump last year \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

UTV<\/a> has reported its first annual loss in Northern Ireland in a decade.<\/p>\n

New accounts published for the ITV<\/a>-owned operation show revenue fell by 20% last year to \u00a322.1 million.<\/p>\n

The \u00a35.4m decline for the year ended December 31 2025 left the 12 months as UTV\u2019s weakest performing trading period since ITV completed its acquisition in 2016.<\/p>\n

The lower revenue left the broadcaster with an operating loss of \u00a31.4m.<\/p>\n

\"Belfast<\/a>\"Plans<\/a><\/p>\n

Offset against finance income, UTV Limited finished 2025 with a pre-tax loss of \u00a3859,000.<\/p>\n

\"UTVUTV relocated its television studio to the eighth floor of City Quays 2 in 2018. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time the media company has reported a pre-tax loss since 2016, when it suffered a major hit from the sale of UTV Ireland to Virgin Media.<\/p>\n

The UTV accounts show it actually finished 2025 with a bottom-line profit of \u00a34m, due to a deferred tax credit of \u00a34.9m inserted on its balance sheet.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s operating expenses also declined last year to \u00a318.8m, down 7% from 2024.<\/p>\n

It included costs associated with programming budgets, transmission costs and other administrative expenses.<\/p>\n

Staff costs for UTV\u2019s 80-strong workforce increased 6.7% year-on-year to \u00a34.2m.<\/p>\n

It represented a record low headcount for UTV in the modern era.<\/p>\n

Net assets increased 15% (\u00a32m) to \u00a315m.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s assets were significantly depleted in 2023 when ITV took \u00a325m in dividends out of the business<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UTV\u2019s assets have been gradually recovering year-on-year since.<\/p>\n

Originally established as Ulster Television, the company has been based at the City Quays 2 building in the Belfast Harbour estate since 2018.<\/p>\n

ITV plc bought the station\u2019s ITV franchise and the UTV brand for \u00a3100m in 2016<\/a>, with the company\u2019s radio division acquired by Rupert Murdoch\u2019s News UK the same year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UTV has reported its first annual loss in Northern Ireland in a decade. New accounts published for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[198659,60222,96,11522,3133,391,56,54,55,19970],"class_list":["post-782510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-belfast-harbour","tag-companies-house","tag-entertainment","tag-itv-studios","tag-television","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-utv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}