A strong result in radio helped to offset poor television returns at UTV over the six months to the end of June, with pretax profits rising by 5 per cent to £8.5 million (€12.5 million).
UTV's Irish radio interests, where operating profits rose by 52 per cent to £2.8 million, were a particular highlight.
The group's six Irish stations, which include Q102 in Dublin and Limerick's Live 95FM, delivered a 16 per cent rise in advertising revenue over the period.
In Britain, radio operations were boosted by the inclusion of 2005 purchase, Talksport, which posted a 38 per cent increase in revenue over the half.
This was driven in large part by the timing of the World Cup, which helped the British radio interests as a whole to grow advertising sales by 16 per cent on a like-for-like basis.
Over the same period, television revenues dropped by 6 per cent to £20.9 million and television operating profits were down by 23 per cent at £5.6 million.
Operating profits across the group were ahead by 30 per cent at £12.4 million.
Jim Downey, UTV's finance director, said problems in television could be blamed largely on the quality of programming UTV is obliged to take from ITV as a franchisee.
He the programme stream included "a lot of dross" that needed to be improved before any uplift in the division could be seen.
UTV has signalled that television advertising revenue is likely to fall by 9 per cent in the third quarter, having already posted annual declines of 21 per cent and 10 per cent in July and August respectively.
Mr Downey said the World Cup "just didn't happen" for television advertising, with weak government spending in the North also hitting performance.
September is forecast to bring a 4 per cent uplift but the firm does not expect this to be maintained into October.
Radio, which now accounts for 56 per cent of UTV's business has, on the other hand, posted more strong growth in the third quarter, with growth of 16 per cent forecast for the Irish stations. In Britain, where UTV has 18 stations, the group expects third-quarter revenues to be ahead by 2 per cent.
Mr Downey said an additional "one or two" licences could be absorbed in the Republic if they became available. The firm failed to buy Galway Bay FM earlier this year.
In television, the group also lost out this year on the acquisition of TV3. More recently, it has made takeover moves on Scottish Media Group (SMG) in a bid to create combined business with a value of €580 million.
SMG owns Virgin Radio and has the ITV franchise for Scotland. Mr Downey declined to comment on the process yesterday, aside from saying UTV was "still very interested".
In new media, the smallest part of UTV's business, the group posted a 16 per cent rise in sales to £4.5 million for the first six months. Operating profits rose by 31 per cent to £500,000.
Mr Downey acknowledged that this division, which includes broadband and telephony, was not a core part of the group and said it could be sold if the right buyer came along with "a big cheque".
Shares in UTV rose by 1.75p to 366.5p in London yesterday. The firm's board declared an interim dividend of 5p per share, marking a 5 per cent annual increase.
