ITV warns of dip in net advertising revenue
Commercial broadcaster ITV has warned that its net advertising revenue is set to dip by one per cent over the nine months to September although it couches this with an expectation that it will still outperform the television market as a whole.
It wasn’t all bad news for the network however with total revenue rising 11 per cent to reach £1.5bn, an uplift driven largely by non-advertising growth, principally ITV Studios where revenues rose by close to a third to reach £651m.
Adam Crozier, ITV chief executive, commented: “Against a backdrop of wider economic uncertainty following the EU referendum we have put in place a robust plan to allow us to meet the opportunities and challenges ahead. As part of this we are targeting a £25m reduction in overheads for 2017.
Looking forward to the full year, we expect to deliver double-digit revenue and EBITA growth in ITV Studios as the acquisitions continue to deliver and double-digit revenue growth in Online, Pay & Interactive. We anticipate NAR to be down around one per cent in the first nine months of the year and we again expect to outperform the UK television market over 2016 as a whole.”
Aside from its financial performance the broadcaster also saw its viewing share rise seven per cent at ITV1 alongside a 50 per cent uptick in long form video consumption.