ITV Hails Euro 2004 A Success As Revenue Soars

ITV has hailed the recent Euro 2004 football championships a success after they helped its sales operation to see its strongest growth in revenue since the height of the dotcom boom in 2000.

The UK’s largest commercial broadcaster claims to have seen revenue increase by 17% throughout the tournament, as an overwhelming demand for airtime spots helped it to outperform all of its commercial rivals put together.

ITV estimates that around £25 million extra was ploughed into the television advertising market during June as a number of high-profile motoring, finance, alcohol and sports brands clambering to associate themselves with the event.

England’s first two group games against France and Switzerland were watched by an average of 17.6 million and 14.2 million respectively. Simon Lent, ITV’s London sales leader, said: “Demand for the two games was exceptional. We could have sold the minutage twice.”

He added: “Through pro-active upfront selling, We were able to generate high levels of relevant brand count across all the key categories – cars, beers, telecoms and other male advertisers such as, Nike, Adidas, Ronseal, Mastercard, AOL.”

ITV claims that its male audience for Euro 2004 increased by between 50% and 60% for all of the matches broadcast. This compares with the broadcaster’s year-to-date profile of 41% male in all-time and 40% in peak time.

As well as the England games, the Germany versus Czech Republic group match attracted an audience of 8.2 million to ITV1 and the Czech Republic’s semi-final clash against Greece an average of 8 million viewers, 49% of whom were men.

However, an average of just 3.4 million tuned in to ITV1 last weekend to watch Greece secure a historic 1-0 victory over Portugal in the culmination of the Euro 2004 tournament. BBC One’s coverage of the match proved far more popular with an average of 10.9 million choosing to Gary Lineker and his team to take them through the final (see Almost 13 Million Tune In To BBC For Euro 2004 Final).

The Euro 2004 tournament has provided a much needed boost for ITV, which could face a deficit of around £100 million in revenue as big-brand advertisers seek to negotiate more competitive deals following its recent decline in audience share (see Dip In Share Leaves ITV Facing Revenue Shortfall).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com

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