ITV’s Interactive Advertising Revenues Increase 175%

ITV’s interactive advertising revenues have increased by 175% to £3 million in the first six months of 2006 and the broadcaster feels that with 20 interactive campaigns having already run this year, the new revenue stream will grow further.

Heineken’s interactive sponsorship of ITV’s UEFA Cup coverage was accessed by over 3.8 million adults every month, with a peak total of 13.3 million users. There were 25,000 entrants to competitions every game and 80,000 responses were generated to the Heineken quiz in one night alone.Nokia sponsored the last series of The X-Factor which delivered an average of 2 million interactive users per month. 9 million viewers were aware of the sponsorship, says ITV.

I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!‘s interactive service (sponsored by First Choice) was accessed by over 1.8 million adults and there were 636,000 votes and competition entries.ITV says that over 10 million adults were aware of the service (mainly young females 25-34) and 75% of those using it knew that First Choice was the sponsor.

Peter Birch, head of Interactive Sales at ITV, said: “ITV now offers interactivity to all its broadcast sponsors and advertisers are proving there is an appetite for red button by renewing their interactive sponsorships with us every year. As viewers increasingly view ITV’s programming via a set top box, these services add value to the proposition as well as offering sponsors an increasing array of innovative and exciting ad formats.”

ITV1’s advertising bookings for September are estimated to be down 12% year-on-year (see Decline For ITV1 Advance Bookings).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com