Studios group Pinewood Shepperton saw its pre-tax profits fall by 24% in 2009 with TV revenues also down thanks to the advertising slump.
Pre-tax profit for the year ended 31 December was £4.5m, compared with £5.9m in 2008.
Overall revenues dropped 6% to £40.3m with television sales at £11.3m, down on last year’s £12.7m.
The company that this was mainly due to “the general economic environment resulting in reduced television advertising revenues and pressure on broadcasters production budgets.”
On the plus side, revenues generated from digital content services increased to £6.4m from £5.3m in 2008.
TV credits in 2009 included My Family (pictured), Wogan’s Perfect Recall, Dragon’s Den, Would I Lie to You, It’s Only a Theory, Bear Behaving Badly and Ant & Dec’s Christmas Special as well as a number of CBeebies productions including Show Me Show Me.
Film revenues, down to £22.7m from £24.2m in 2008, were hit by an industrial dispute with the Screen Actors Guild.
Chief executive Ivan Dunleavy said: “We are well positioned to cater for the growing demand for creative content and have made substantial progress in all areas of our UK business. We are encouraged by the growth opportunity in television, our leading position in film and television studios in the UK, the performance of our Media Park revenues and the long term potential of our international branding partnerships”.
Early predictions for 2010 suggest that contracted revenues are ahead of the same period in 2009.
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