Decline For ITV1 Advance Bookings

ITV1 seems to be showing little sign of an upturn in fortunes, with media buyers estimating that advertising bookings for September will be down 12% year-on-year, according to reports in the Financial Times.

The paper reports media buyers as saying that the channel could suffer a year-on-year decline of between 10% and 12% in September early bookings.

The decline is apparently encouraging ITV1 to be more flexible about accepting late bookings, with advertisers normally facing higher charges the closer to transmission they purchase air time.

GroupM, the holding group for WPP’s media buying companies, has now downgraded its ITV1 forecast for the year, with a revenue decline of 12% now expected rather than the 11% estimated before the advanced figures were known.

After a poor World Cup for the broadcaster, which saw it soundly beaten by BBC1 when both showed coverage of the final (see Viewers Choose BBC One In World Cup Final Face-Off), the new series of its reality show Love Island is also performing badly, particularly when up against Big Brother (see Love Island Struggles To Seduce).

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