ITV enjoys improvement in TV advertising revenues, Studios sales

ITV reported an easing in the television advertising crunch in the third quarter and further good growth in online and overseas sales of its Studios productions.

Total external revenues for the nine months of the year to 30 September are down just 1% to £2.1bn, from 3% fall in the first half, with a small decline in net advertising revenues (NAR) mostly offset by 8% growth in non-advertising revenues.

ITV Studios revenue increased 9% to above £1bn and online and pay TV achieved double digit revenue growth, helped by a 41% increase in online viewing.

This rebalancing of the business was the main aim of previous management duo, while new chairman Peter Bazalgette will not be joined by his new chief executive Carolyn McCall until January.

But Bazalgette said the core business was "currently seeing a return to TV advertising from some of the FMCGs and grocers although wider corporate confidence in the UK continues to be impacted by political and economic uncertainty".

NAR for the ITV 'family' of channels was down 7% over the year to the end of September and down 4% in Q3 as expected, with September down 3% after falls of 5% in July and August a - noptably improved from the 8% decline in the first half.

Bazalgette expects the fourth quarter to see a 1% growth in NAR, with October down 1%, November up 2% and December up 1%, leading to a 5% decline for the full year.

"We have performed strongly both online and onscreen with ITV family share of viewing up 2%.

"ITV has maintained its spend on original commissions and continues to deliver the mass audiences demanded by advertisers, with 99% of all commercial audiences over 5m, as well as delivering the key target demographics," he said.

ITV Studios showed underlying growth across all parts of the business, with particularly strong growth in ITV America.

"We are making real progress in building a European scripted business with the recent acquisition of Italian producer Cattleya," said Bazalgette.

"This, along with our investment in Tetra in France and our existing European drama businesses, will enable us to benefit from the increasing demand for locally produced content with global appeal."