ITV has unveiled half-year results showing a rise in profits despite a continued slump in revenues at ITV1.

Pre-tax profit for the first half was £173m, up 12% from £154m during the same period last year, which the group primarily attributed to the disposal of businesses and investments.

Overall revenue was £1.08bn, up slightly from the £1.05bn during the same period last year. This rise was primarily achieved through net advertising revenue increases at ITV's multichannel assets (up from £48m in the first half of 2005 to £70m this year). Other revenue streams included ITV Play (£27m) and Friends Reunited (£8m). Net advertising revenue at ITV1 fell 8% from £710m in the first half of 2005 to £654m.

"Despite a tough display advertising market, these results show that our strategy for developing our businesses outside ITV1 is delivering and they continue to grow at an impressive rate," said outgoing CEO Charles Allen. "Our focus remains on revitalising the ITV1 schedule performance and the Autumn and Winter schedules are looking strong. We also continue to invest in ITV’s digital future with the development of ITV local and broadband in addition to our successful family of channels."

Further hints of upcoming changes to ITV1's output were dropped in the report. In a statement regarding ITV1's role in the increasingly competitive multichannel marketplace, the company said:

"[Public Service Broadcasting] commitments represent almost a third of ITV1’s schedule but only 11% of ITV1’s impacts. Currently our ITV1 PSB slots are targeted by competitors with commercially attractive programming. We believe that there are opportunities in the medium term to modernise our PSB commitments including, for example, adjusting the balance of children’s programming across ITV1 and our newly launched CITV channel; available to 90% of families with children."