How ITV is set for record advertising revenue this year

Carolyn McCall is the chief executive of ITV.

Britain' s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster, which made the drama Vigil and reality show Love Island, said ad revenue would rise by between 11 per cent and 13 per cent in the fourth quarter, resulting in a 24 per cent increase for the year.

Chief executive Carolyn McCall said ITV had an "outstanding" nine months "by any standards", with revenue in its Media & Entertainment broadcasting business and its Studios production unit performing better than last year and 2019.

Revenue for the nine-months to the end of September rose 28 per cent to £2.38 billion pounds, the company said.

The company said the share of viewing achieved by its main ITV channel for the nine months to the end of September rose to 17 per cent from 16.6 per cent, with the Euros, Love Island and dramas such as Manhunt: The Night Stalker and Vera, delivering strong ratings.

Ms McCall said: "We are becoming an increasingly scaled digital business. Our online viewing was up 39 per cent in the nine months which, together with the roll out of Planet V, helped our video on demand advertising (AVOD) revenue to climb 54 per cent. Our monthly active users (MAUs) now stand at 9.6 million, a 22 per cent increase year on year reflecting the focus on our AVOD strategy.

"With the combination of Broadcast and ITV Hub's mass simultaneous reach, our brand safe addressable advertising product and the strong economy, 2021 looks set to have the highest advertising revenue in ITV's history, despite the lockdown in the first quarter

"ITV Studios continues to attract and support brilliant creative talent delivering significant growth in the UK and internationally. It has produced the biggest dramas of the year so far on both the BBC and ITV and revenue from streamers globally is growing very strongly.

"Like the rest of our business, ITV Studios is embracing new digital processes with more of our productions being managed remotely, utilising tools such as cloud-based editing.

"Today's results further illustrate that ITV has successfully completed the first phase of its More Than TV strategy and is accelerating the second phase of digital transformation as we evolve our products, user experiences and ways of working."

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