ITV has confirmed that more advertisers are starting to return following the coronavirus crisis, as advertising revenue for July was down 23%, compared with a 42% drop in June and a 46% decline in May.
ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall said that travel companies had returned to encourage holiday and flight bookings, while brand categories like DIY were also back.
McCall was speaking as ITV published its half-year results, which saw a 43% fall in ad revenue for the second quarter, resulting in a 17% overall decline in external revenue to £1.2 billion for the first six months of the year.
Advertising revenue for the six-month period to the end of June dipped to £671 million from £849 million during the same period last year.
McCall said: “While our two main sources of revenue – production and advertising – were down significantly in the first half of the year and the outlook remains uncertain, today we are seeing an upward trajectory with productions restarting and advertisers returning.
“The future is still uncertain due to the pandemic but the action we have taken to manage and mitigate the impact of Covid-19 puts us in a good position to continue to invest in our strategy of transforming ITV into a digitally-led media and entertainment company.”
BritBox, a joint venture with BBC Studios, is now available to all UK households with a Samsung Smart TV or Apply TV – although ITV wouldn’t provide exact subscriber figures, choosing instead to report ‘good growth’ in BritBox subscriptions.
ITV also confirmed that it has restarted production on around 70% of the 230 shows impacted or paused by the lockdown. Production on Coronation Street and Emmerdale restarted in June.
