STV suffers 4% national ad revenue slump in Q3

STV has reported a 4% slump in its national advertising revenue during the third quarter of 2011, as the Scottish broadcaster is also rebuked by Ofcom over the length of its ad breaks.

The ITV licence holder in central Scotland said that it expects ad revenue in November and December to be "slightly below the ITV Network" due to "very high revenue shares in the previous year".

STV's national ad revenue was down 4% year-on-year in the third quarter, but regional airtime revenue saw an even greater drop, at 18%. But STV said that regional revenue should return to growth in Q4.

Overall, STV is predicting national ad revenues to be down 2% to 3% for the full year to December 31, while regional ad revenue is likely to be down 10%.

Meanwhile, STV was yesterday criticised by media regulator Ofcom over the length of some of its ad breaks during programmes. Ofcom said that STV broke strict rules that limit breaks to three minutes and 50 seconds.

STV was found to have covered up some sponsorship announcements seen by viewers tuning in to ITV1 programmes in other parts of the UK with trailers. This meant that it had broke Ofcom's rules as the break had already reached its maximum permitted length.

Sponsorship announcements do not count towards the length of advert breaks, but programme trailers do.

This is the third time in less than two years that STV has been found in breach of the ad break limit, but because the broadcaster identified the latest problem and flagged it up voluntarily to Ofcom, there will no further action from the regulator.

In a statement issued to BBC Scotland News, STV said: "We accept Ofcom's ruling on what is acknowledged as a very complex issue which STV spotted and flagged to the regulator.

"At no point did STV transmit more than the permitted level of commercials. STV has a rigorous and ongoing training programme for staff."

> Ofcom raps STV over sponsorship breaches

In its interim management statement published today, STV highlighted its "good progress" towards business targets, including strong expansion of its digital business and the STV Local network of hyper-local websites.

STV Productions is also broadening its activities across genres, including this month's announcement of ITV2's commissioning of Perez Hilton Super Fan, a co-production with US production company Kinetic Content and GroupM Entertainment.

The broadcaster said that it remains "cautious" over the outlook for 2012, but has been "encouraged by our strong on-screen performance where we continue to outperform the broader ITV Network and the positive impact of Euro 2012 next summer".

STV chief executive Rob Woodward said: "We are broadly on track to deliver our targets and our strategy remains clear going forward with investment in strategic partnerships, helping extend the STV brand in our core Scottish market and beyond.

"We are committed to delivering public service broadcasting and creative content across all platforms and to delivering shareholder value. This is an exciting time for STV, with a number of strategic initiatives underway and a true connection with our audience, we are confident in our position as Scotland's leading digital media company."

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