Revenues at commercial broadcaster Itv (LON:ITV) bounced by 6% to £450m in the first quarter of this year, with television advertising revenues up 8% during the period and currently forecast to be up 22% in the second quarter. The group noted that predictions for the first half were a substantial improvement on the 15% revenue decline seen in the first half of last year, although it was benefitting from the impact of the FIFA World Cup this summer. However, it warned that in second half, the year-on-year comparators were more challenging and that the UK advertising market was also highly exposed to the uncertain economic outlook post-election.

In the first quarter, ITV’s Broadcasting and Online revenues were up 6% to £390m, while ITV Studios external revenues was up 7% to £60m and internal production revenues were down slightly at £73m. ITV1’s share of commercial impacts for the year to April 26 was down 5% with ITV family putting in a flat performance.

Adam Crozier, the chief executive of ITV, said: “ITV’s financial performance over the first quarter reflects growth in UK television advertising following last year’s record declines. Over two years, revenues are still tracking below 2008 levels. The outlook for the latter part of 2010 and early 2011 is tough with more testing year-on-year comparators and uncertain market conditions post-election. Given also the long-term challenges facing the free-to-air market, change remains an imperative at ITV and we are focused on driving the transformation of the business over the next 3-5 years.”

ITV’s shares fell by 6% to 57.3p in early trading.

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