ITV is 'actively exploring' deal to buy All3Media, the producer of Gogglebox and The Traitors

In an update to shareholders, the company added that “there can be no certainty as to whether any transaction will take place, nor as to the terms of any such transaction.”

In a quarterly trading update published last month, ITV revealed it had experienced a 10 per cent drop in advertising revenues at the start of 2023.

It also warned trading would get tougher in the second quarter as firms rein in marketing spend against a difficult economic backdrop.

The group behind hit shows Love Island and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! cautioned over a “challenging” outlook for ad spending and predicted a 12 per cent fall over the three months to the end of June.

But chief executive Carolyn McCall insisted its first quarter fall was better than the wider market and said the group pulled in large streaming audiences for exclusive series such as Nolly and The Twelve on its ITVX online content platform.

Speaking in May, Ms McCall said: “Total advertising revenue in the first quarter was down 10 per cent– as expected and better than the wider TV advertising market.

“We are looking forward to the third quarter with Love Island and the Rugby World Cup set to draw large broadcast and streaming audiences.”

The group said it was seeing strong growth in digital advertising revenues in its media and entertainment business up 30 per cent at £87m in the first three months of 2023 and expected to rise by more than 20 per cent in the second quarter.

But this was not yet enough to offset the the wider slump in ad spend, ITV said in last month’s update.

The update showed overall total external revenues fell 7 per cent to £776m in the first three months of 2023.