Sharewatch: ITV Rises Ahead Of New Digital Channel

ITV continued to see growth yesterday, adding 1.91% to its share price to close at 106˝p, as the broadcaster gears up to launch its latest digital channel, ITV3, for older upmarket viewers interested in drama.

ITV recently revealed that FMCG giant Unilever has exclusively secured the first commercial break to run on ITV3, targeting a desirable upmarket audience of those aged 35 and over on its launch date of 1 November. Unilever’s acquisition of the channel’s virgin advert space enables it to run campaigns for its top rating brands, including Persil, Comfort, Lynx, Dove and Birds Eye in its solus position (see ITV Secures First Advertiser For New Digital Channel).

Elsewhere magazine publisher Future Network saw its share price creep up by 0.44% to 57źp. Yesterday saw the company appoint ABC to carry out circulation audits for all of its 50 magazine titles, spanning the technology, games and entertainment sectors. The move will provide advertisers with increased accountability for campaigns run across the publisher’s portfolio (see Future Publishing Hands Auditing Business To ABC).

Rival magazine publisher Emap also saw a rise yesterday, adding 1.35% to its total to close at 785˝p. The company recently announced a sponsorship deal with Microsoft’s games console, Xbox, worth £250,000 covering its online operations at fhm.com (see FHM Partners Xbox For Six Month Sponsorship Campaign).

The FTSE 100 put in a strong performance yesterday, rising by 46.7 points to close at 4,630.1, while the FTSE 250 added an equally impressive 45.5 points to close at 6,322.5.

The closing prices of media company shares on Wednesday were: