Shares in Centaur Media (LON:CAU) jumped by more than 8% to 49.75p on a pre-close statement from the business publishing and information group ahead of its full year results to June 30, which are scheduled for September. Centaur said a recovery in advertising sales had seen revenues up by 10% on the same six months last year, led by strong growth in the marketing and legal sectors. Events also delivered a satisfactory performance while online revenues grew by approximately 15% in the second half. Overall profits are expected to match expectations. Looking ahead, the group said the marked improvement in trading conditions had continued into the new financial year.

Elsewhere, Coolabi (LON:COO), the group that owns, develops and manages high quality children's and family brands and intellectual property, reported that production was underway to bring the much-loved children's literary character Poppy Cat to television screens internationally. In February, Coolabi appointed King Rollo Films Ltd as its animation partner for the 52 episode series, due to air on Nick Jr (UK) in 2011. Strong international pre-sales of the series have already been recorded with sales confirmed to Nick Jr Australia, RTE Ireland, YLE Finland, TV2 Norway, and TVO, SCN and Knowledge Network in Canada. Other international broadcaster partners are expected to be announced in the near future by Cake Entertainment, which has signed a global TV distribution agreement for the series.

Dq Entertainment (LON:DQE), the animation, gaming, live action entertainment production and distribution company, has signed two exclusive broadcast agreements with The Education Broadcasting System (EBS), the Korea based broadcasting company and Canada based Tele-Quebec, for “The Jungle Book”, DQE's home grown 3D animated TV series. DQE’s Jungle Book series has already been secured for television broadcasting in 160 countries while NBC-Universal have secured several important territories globally for home video - sales and distribution. Shares in the company rose by nearly 1% to 116p.

Finally, UBC Media Group (LON:UBC), the multimedia content and services company, said it was now on course to beat profit expectations for the year by about £1m after agreeing an early release with Bauer Radio for its multiplex spectrum contracts which run until 2013. Previously, UBC had to make a series of provisions for the contracts but has now agreed a deal that will see it write back…

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