Ad recovery helps triple Northern & Shell profits
Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell, the group behind Channel 5, Express Newspapers and OK! Magazine, has tripled pre-tax profits to £30m following strong advertising recovery.
Double-digit growth in advertising revenues across its newspaper and magazine titles have helped grow the group’s total turnover fivefold, from £103.3m in 2009 to £524.8m in 2010.
A difficult 2009 saw the publisher and broadcaster record a pre-tax profit of £9m, but its £99m acquisition of Channel 5 in July 2010 proved lucrative with the broadcaster reported to have contributed half of the group's £30m profit for 2010.
An £11m restructure of the broadcaster, along with a buoyant Christmas advertising market, means the channel has been profitable in its own right since September 2010.