28 November 2005
Digital-only TV stations are expected to see strong growth in advertising revenues next year – but the overall picture is not rosy for one broadcaster in particular.
ITV has been shaken by figures from OPera, an agency which advises companies on buying advertising space, which show that flagship channel ITV1 is projected to see the worrying decline in its share of revenues from adverts carry on into 2006.
OPera predicts that ITV1's share will be down to 43.3 per cent next year, from its current standing of 46.8 per cent. As recently at 2002 it held as much as 53.6 per cent – so this equates to £82 million of lost revenue.
Digital stations ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4, though, are all thriving – and are expected to benefit further from increased advertising expenditure next year.
The Omnicom agency, which owns OPera, said: "OPera sees a substantial loss of revenues for ITV as a result of a tumbling audience share and the impact of the Contract Rights Renewal agreement, which OPera believes has been an unmitigated disaster for the broadcaster."
The aforementioned agreement lets advertisers withdraw promised expenditure in proportion to any fall in audiences – something from which ITV markedly suffered in the first half of this year.
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