ITV warns over Brexit uncertainty

The group booked a 4 per cent drop in underlying earnings to £810m for 2018.

It said Brexit woes are set to see total advertising fall 3 per cent - 4 per cent over the first four months of 2019, with sales and profits set to be hit in the half-year as it also comes up against tough comparatives from last year’s Football World Cup boost.

The figures came as the company said it was in the “concluding phase” of discussions with the BBC over a new on-demand platform called BritBox to rival the likes of Netflix and is working towards a formal agreement.

ITV will invest up to £25m in the venture this year and around £40m in 2020.

Chief executive Carolyn McCall said: “We have started 2019 with strong onscreen and online viewing.

“However, the economic and political headwinds for the UK will have an effect on the advertising market and, while ITV is increasingly diversified, we remain sensitive to this.

“We continue to be very focused on delivering in the areas we can control and actively mitigating the factors outside the company’s control.”

On a statutory basis, ITV reported a 13 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £567m for 2018.