ITV revenue up, ad income stable

ITV's revenues for the first quarter of 2008 were up 3% year-on-year to £492m, largely thanks to sales of its shows overseas.

The broadcaster's net revenue from advertising was 2% larger than in the same period last year, despite the ad market as a whole shrinking by 1%.

Executive chairman Michael Grade, announcing the first quarter results today, said his "turnaround plan" for ITV was on track.

The company is grappling with a declining share of viewers for its flagship channel and, despite advertising holding up, overall revenue from its broadcasting division was down 2% year-on-year to £409m.

Proceeds from global content - selling its shows and formatting rights overseas - were up 41% to £58m, the largest contributor to the growth in overall revenue.

ITV said revenue from its online operations was up 13% on the same period last year to £9m. According to its internal data, views of video on its website grew by 76% between January and April.

Grade predicted ITV's ad revenue would be flat for the first half of the year, while the overall market is shrinking. "The forecast for the first half shows us outperforming the UK television advertising market – the first time this has happened since 2000," he said.

"In broadcasting ITV has continued to achieve its turnaround priority of maintaining viewing of its family of channels, even as digital penetration grows. Viewing share across the ITV family of channels is up 1.6% at 23.4%."

Grade said: "In global content we are starting to deliver on our strategy of increasing revenues in the UK and internationally, organically and by acquisition. Growth has been driven by a strong performance in international production and we’ve secured major prime-time commissions and format sales to Fox, NBC and CBS in the US."

He said the commercial video on demand service ITV is developing with BBC Worldwide and Channel 4, was "on track to launch later this year".

Grade said £40m would be saved in regional news next year; meanwhile, the broadcaster is still looking at other ways of cutting costs.

ITV also today announced it had acquired Scandinavian producer Silverback in a deal worth £14m. This is part of plans to grow global content revenue.