ITV Revenues To Remain Flat In 2004, Says Billetts

Billetts says that ITV’s revenues will rise by a meagre 0.3% in 2004, whilst multi-channel advertising jumps by 11.0% year on year. As a result, multichannel’s share of the market will rise from 19.0% in 2003 to 20.3% this year. This is more than double the share of advertising that the multi-channel sector took in 1997.

Strong revenue growth will also come from Five, which is predicted to rise by 6.0% this year. Channel 4 is weaker at just 2.0% growth and its share of the market is expected to fall behind multi-channel’s by the second half of the year.

Share Of Commercial Television Revenue Trends
	ITV	Channel 4	Five	Multichannel	GMTV
1997	65	20	3	9	3
1998	62	20	5	11	3
1999	60	19	6	12	2
2000	59	19	6	13	2
2001	56	20	6	15	2
2002	54	20	8	17	2
2003	51	20	8	19	2
2004F	50	19.8	8	20.3	2
Source: Billetts, January 2004

Overall, the total television airtime market is forecast to rise by 3.0% in 2004, an improvement on 2003’s 0.5% rise. This concurs with October 2003 forecasts from Mediaedge:cia, which also predict a 3.0% rise in the television market this year (see UK Media Inflation Forecasts From Mediaedge:cia).

Billetts expects growth to come from the Olympics and Euro 2004 competitions (the Euro 2000 competition pushed revenues up by 16% in June of that year). The report also says that two or three major car launches should improve motor spend.