ITV predicts ad revenue rise

The UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster, ITV, predicted today that its advertising revenues for the first half of the year would be up 3% on the same period last year, buoyed by digital expansion.

The company, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has experienced a challenging time of late on flagship channel ITV1, with shows like Celebrity Wrestling and Celebrity Love Island failing to ignite the ratings.

But chairman Sir Peter Burt was bullish today, saying at the ITV agm that the company’s completed merger and £120m worth of cost savings delivered by the disposal of non-core assets had prompted “strong growth” in the business.

“Our new channels ITV2 and ITV3 are performing exceptionally well and are the leading digital channels in Digital Terrestrial Television homes,” said Burt. “From this base we can now exploit the opportunities that we have in the digital world.”

Burt cited other areas of progress within ITV in recent months, which meant that the company was well-positioned for growth. These include the establishment of a new consumer division, headed up by former Hallmark Channel ceo for EMEA Jeff Henry, and the £134m purchase of digital terrestrial multiplex operator SDN, which gave ITV a further valuable stake in Freeview.

Burt said that the viewing share across ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV News and GMTV has continued to grow over the past six months.

“Within digital terrestrial television the increase has been greatest with ITV’s channels growing by 1.9 share points and accounting for 27.8% of all viewing over that period,” said Burt. “In all multichannel homes the share of commercial impacts grew over that period by 1.9 share points to 41.7%.”

Based on these figures, Burt added: “It is estimated that over the six months to June, ITV plc’s advertising revenue overall will increase by approximately 3% on the same period last year. The combined advertising revenue for ITV1, ITV2 and ITV3 over that period is expected to be broadly in line with last year.”