In what is the first, but will probably not be the last, example of a media company tussling with its bankers in 2009, Sport Media Group said on Wednesday that it was in breach of a covenant on a bank loan thought to represent about half of its £8m net debt.

The Aim-listed publisher of the Daily and Sunday Sport newspapers, which had a turnover of £14m in the six months to the end of January 2008, said the bank, which it did not name, had granted an extension to its facility for two months.