Results round-up

In spite of a 13% decline in net advertising revenue in April, ITV said it expected it to be "broadly flat" for the first half of the year and for the group to deliver "good profit growth".

Although NAR from the ITV 'family' of channels was down very slightly in the first quarter after a 13% decline in April, strong growth from ITV Studios programming meant total group revenue rose 14% to £755m in the three months to 31 March.

The FTSE 100 company forecasts NAR will be flat for May and up around 15% in June, which will flatten off April's decline.

Non-advertising revenue was up 34% to £428m, accelerating from the 25% growth in 2015, fuelled by a 44% first-quarter gain at ITV Studios and 17% from the Online, pay & Interactive segment.

"ITV is now a much stronger and more diverse business and we expect to deliver good profit growth in H1," said chief executive Adam Crozier.

"This is against the backdrop of uncertainty in the UK advertising market, which we have experienced since the debate over Brexit began, and significantly higher share of our programme spend in the first six months. We anticipate ITV Family NAR in H1 to be broadly flat and ahead of the market."

ITV Studios was helped by acquisitions such as 'The Voice' and 'Dating in the Dark' producer Talpa Media coming through and the division has a good pipeline of new and returning programmes, including Victoria, Cold Feet, The Voice and Alone, which Crozier said "gives us confidence for the full year and into 2017".

Full year pre-tax profits at telecoms group TalkTalk more than halved to £14m after last year's embarrassing cyber attack cost the company £42m.

Revenue was up slightly to £1.83bn from £1.7bn. Exceptional items jumped to £88m from £30m including expenditure to limit the damage from the attack in October which saw the details of thousands of customers stolen.

TalkTalk said churn improved significantly during the quarter and at 1.3%.

The company said it was reiterating its full year 2017 guidance of “modest” revenue growth and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £320m-£360m.

“Consistent with the trends seen in Q4, we expect to see headline revenue decline in H1 2017, reflecting the smaller on net base, and return to growth in H2 as comparatives ease,” the company said.

Cable.co.uk telecoms expert Dan Howdle believes there were more factors at play for the company, adding that the company's refusal to allow anyone to leave without an exit fee allowed it to limit the damage caused by the cyber attack.