UK broadcaster ITV’s advertising revenue falls 42% in April

LONDON (Reuters) – ITV , Britain’s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster, said COVID-19 had sent its advertising revenue down 42% last month, and an uncertain outlook meant it could not give guidance for the rest of the year.

The company, which paused the majority of its studio productions in mid-March and has furloughed around 800 workers, said it had identified another 30 million pounds of savings in overheads on top of action it is already taking to cut budgets, including 100 million pounds from programming.

Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said ITV had taken swift and decisive action to manage and mitigate the impact of COVID-19, both on its people and its finances.

“We are now very focused on emerging from this crisis in a strong position, continuing to offer advertisers effective marketing opportunities and making preparations to restart productions safely,” she said.

Total external revenue for the three months to 31 March fell 7% to 694 million pounds ($863 million), it said, as it was hit by working restrictions at ITV Studios caused by the crisis.

Broadcast revenue for the quarter rose 2% to 500 million pounds, with ITV total advertising up 2% as originally guided, it said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)