The Stage

ITV announces 5% decline in broadcasting revenues

Published Wednesday 5 November 2008 at 13:05 by Matthew Hemley

ITV has announced a 5% decline in its broadcasting revenues for the first nine months of this year.

In an interim statement issued today, for the nine months to September 30, ITV said its broadcasting revenues were down to £1.2 billion.

Over all, its total revenues were down 1% to £1.47 billion, with its net advertising revenues down 2.5% to £1.04 billion.

It has warned that in the last quarter of this year, it anticipates net advertising revenue to fall by 9%, against a 9.4% decline for the total TV market.

Executive chairman Michael Grade said despite “tough economic conditions”, ITV had continued “to perform strongly” and added that online viewing “had increased spectacularly”, with more than 80 million views on ITV sites.

In today’s statement, ITV said its revenues from online activity were up 35% to £206 million.

In light of this success, Grade has announced that ITV’s online assets - including ITV.com, ITV Local and Friends Reunited - are to be merged into ITV’s programming operations, bringing them under the direction of ITV director of television, Peter Fincham.

Fincham’s new title will now be director of television, channels and online.

Grade said: “With content at the heart of our turnaround strategy, it now makes sense to integrate fully all our platforms to ensure the very best of our content is available to viewers, wherever they wish to view it.”

Fincham said viewers are increasingly consuming ITV content online and via catch-up.

“By integrating all our platforms, we can be sure we commission and deliver the best, most watched and most wanted content from ITV across all our platforms,” he said.