ITV has said that ITV1’s advertising revenue for the first half of 2007 will be down by 9.6%, whilst ITV Plc’s total advertising revenue is down by 7.5%.
In an AGM statement released today, ITV said that its family of channels (including GMTV) achieved a viewing share in multichannel homes of 21.9% which was slightly ahead of the same period in 2006.
Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV plc, said: “I’m encouraged by the progress we’ve made so far this year, but there is still a great deal more to do. We are taking steps to stabilise our core business and ensure future growth by reviewing the best allocation of our current resources.
“In recent months we have managed to slow the rate of decline in SOCI and viewing share on ITV1 as we begin to see new programming from our commissioning team delivered on-screen. In addition, we’ve made some key acquisitions to strengthen our schedules, such as the FA Cup and England rights from 2008, secured long-term deals with major talent such as Ant and Dec and Simon Cowell, and are extending our contract with ITN for news. The relaunch of ITV.com will help to ensure that ITV continues to grow its share of increasing online revenues.
“The board takes the PRTS issues very seriously and is committed to publishing the findings of the current independent review of PRTS in ITV programming.
“Encouragingly the airtime sales market appears less volatile than last year, and we remain firmly focused on the needs of our viewers and advertisers. Our goal is to create long-term value for our shareholders by exploiting our content on an expanding number of media platforms, both in the UK and internationally.”
It has been rumoured that ITV will today announce that Dawn Airey is to take on a senior management role at ITV (see Airey Could Join ITV).
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