Macquarie Media Group has reported annual profit up more than seven-fold, and says regional advertising sales are tracking as expected in the first quarter of the new financial year. Macquarie Media's result was affected by the absorption of regional tv stations in Australia, by heavy government and political ad spending towards the end of 2007 as the federal election drew near, and by a $255 million profit on the sale of its Taiwan broadband unit. Shares in Macquarie gained as much as 4 cents, or 1.1%, to $3.74 in early trade.

MMG chief executive Mark Dorney said ''Both radio and television benefited from solid local advertising growth throughout the 2008 financial year. ''As expected, national advertising in the December 2007 half was boosted by the Federal Government information campaigns and the 2007 Federal Election. ''Whilst these factors had largely passed when we acquired control of SBC television on 26 October 2007, they positively impacted our radio business.''