Sharewatch: ITV Rises Following Advertising Upturn

Britain’s largest commercial broadcaster, ITV, was seen in focus yesterday as investors renewed their confidences to push the company’s share price up by 2.69%.

ITV closed at 105p yesterday after Citigroup told investors that shares had been oversold, and that 115p was “achievable in the near term, spurred by an improvement in advertising over the autumn”. ITV was recently forced to drop two high-profile shows from its peak-time schedules amid ongoing fears that a dip in viewing could force the broadcaster to pay up to £100 million to advertisers in compensation (see ITV Drops Peak-Time Shows To Avoid Viewing Slump).

Elsewhere, satellite broadcaster BSkyB added 2.83% to its share price to close at 491p. The firm was buoyed by news from city firm Investec that shareholders are prepared to lay more long term bets on the company’s shares.

Sky recently unveiled a new branding and revised schedule for its flagship Sky One entertainment channel. The broadcaster will now attempt to distance itself from previous downmarket programming in favour of more family-friendly, big budget American imports (see Sky One Cleans Up Schedule In Bid For More Viewers).

Few media stocks experienced negative growth yesterday, although radio group UBC continued to fall, losing 1.15%. Rumours continue to circulate that the firm will launch a national talk radio station in conjunction with Channel 4 (see Channel 4 Plans To Launch National Talk Radio Station).

The FTSE 100 saw a rise for the sixth consecutive day yesterday, rising to its highest level since the start of July to close up 1% at 4,453.9. The FTSE 250 also saw a rise, climbing by 0.6% to close at 6,073.6

The closing prices of media company shares on Thursday were: