DMGT fined £225,000 for closing Teletext

The early ending of Teletext's public service content led to a £225,000 fine for its parent company Daily Mail & General Trust yesterday after Ofcom ruled it amounted to an "extremely serious breach" of obligations under the company's licence. The company stopped its loss-making news and sport coverage at the end of last year even though it had four years of its licence to run. The regulator said the decision had "caused and continues to cause serious and significant harm to consumers of this service generally".

The fine came as DMGT yesterday revealed a return to profits growth in the half year and predicted that key divisions would continue to improve. A recovery in hard-hit advertising markets and previous cost cuts helped the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday to deliver a 42 per cent leap in underlying pre-tax profits to £110m in the six months to 4 April. In its nationals division, a strong performance at Metro helped underlying ad revenues rise 1 per cent to £181m, while cost cuts offset a fall in circulation revenues.