ITV, the largest commercial broadcaster in the UK, today reported that net profit had declined by more than 30 percent for H1 2007 compared to the same period last year, to £83 million ($168 million) from £120 million, and that revenue fell to £1.004 billion compared to £1.077 billion. But in a statement, ITV noted that the outlook was beginning to stabilize and emphasized growth in its digital business:
— ITV said revenue from interactive services were £19 million; chief executive Michael Grade noted that the company has been affected by the suspension of premium-rate telephone and interactive services pending a review by Deloitte in the wake of a scandal across several television stations over the issues of compliance and over-charging viewers.
— ITV says it has 8.5 million unique users across its Internet sites.
— Revenue from ITV’s social networking sites — Friends Reunited, Friends Reunited Dating and Genes Reunited — was up 38% over last year to £11 million.
— ITV notes that early signs for the pre-roll video advertising market were good: ads for Ford carried in Britain’s Got Talent online clips generating a click-through rate of 9 percent, a multiple it claims is 30 times the normal average click-through rates. Pre-roll ads run over catch-up, archive and made-for-broadband programs carried on its itv.com site, which is now relaunched as a streaming site.
— Further emphasis on new business growth: ITV appointed two new non-exec directors, Agnes Touraine and Heather Killen. Touraine is a founder of consultancy Act III and was formerly head of Vivendi Universal Publishing; Killen once worked for Yahoo and then co-founded Hemisphere Capital, a PE group. “Digital talent for the digital age,” in the words of Grade.
— Advertising revenue for ITV1 fell by 9 percent (the channel accounts for 59 percent of the group’s revenues), to £595 from £654, but ITV projects that it will be up by 1 percent on a YOY basis for Q3, along with a 4 percent increase across all its analogue and digital channels. Digital channel revenue was up to £95 million, representing 36 percent growth. Audience decline is also beginning to slow, with individual viewing share year on year from January 1 to July 29 up 0.7 percent to 21.8 percent in homes with mulitchannel access.
— Grade is still actively involved in lobbying the government to mandate HD spectrum on the digital terretrial Freeview platform, which has yet to be decided although pay-TV operators are already planning HD services on their delivery networks.
— The group is in the process of conducting a business review and will update the market on 12 September.
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