Cautious Welcome For ITV Revenue Boost

ITV is bucking the recessionary trend with news today of an 11% year-on-year increase in revenue.
Covering the first nine months of 2010 the broadcaster has taken in revenues of £1.45bn and forecasts that the TV advertising recovery will continue until the end of the year.
Anticipated TV ad revenues will be up 10% year-on-year in the final three months of 2010, reinforcing optimistic forecasts for December.
ITV's ad revenue was up 16% year-on-year for the first nine months. However, ITV's advertising recovery was offset to some extent by declining revenues from ITV Studios, with income from commissions from other broadcasters down 10% year-on-year in the first nine months to £205m.
Despite the strong recovery of advertising, the broadcaster said it was planning "cautiously" for 2011 due to the "uncertain economic outlook".
ITV Chief Executive Adam Crozier pointed out that while the television advertising market has continued to recover strongly, this does not disguise the significant challenges ITV faces: "We remain focused on delivering the five-year Transformation Plan," he said.
"We are forging ahead with implementing our first phase priorities; we have launched HD versions of ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 on the Sky platform, we have agreed a new three-year deal for both The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent and we have completed the sale of Screenvision.
"The economic outlook for 2011 is uncertain and we continue to plan on a cautious basis," he said.
In detail, the group revenues are up 11% to £1,456m (2009: £1,312m), driven by the strong television advertising recovery while ITV television advertising revenues are up 16% in Q3 and currently forecast to be up 10% in Q4.
ITV Studios external revenues were down 10% to £205m (2009: £229m), emphasising the need for creative renewal but with the continued focus on cash and costs, net debt has reduced to £366m at 30th September (30th June 2010: £437m).
This does not include the £47m proceeds from the sale of Screenvision which were received in October 2010.
(BMcC/GK)