ITV outperforms but there is a lack of audience
BROADCASTER ITV celebrated its “best outperformance of the market for five years” yesterday, as the company saw broadcast ad revenues rise six per cent “well ahead of the UK television advertising market”, according to its chief executive.
However, ITV said falling audience numbers were an area of concern as its channels’ ratings fell short of its expectations. “While ITV Family Share of Viewing is not as good as we would like, we remain clearly focused on improving onscreen performance and we expect to outperform the advertising market again next year,” said chief executive Adam Crozier.
Total external revenues rose eight per cent to £1.8bn during the nine months to 30 September, led by 10 per cent growth in its ITV Studios original content division, which is behind the likes of Downton Abbey and Broadchurch.
“We expect Studios to grow revenue by a similar amount to this year driven by the full-year benefit of our acquisitions and a return to organic growth fuelled by the global demand for high quality content,” said Crozier. ITV shares rose 2.24 per cent to close at 205.10p.