UK commercial television broadcaster ITV today reported a sharp increase in half-year profits, raised its cost savings target from its merger of Carlton and Granada and said advertising revenue growth was accelerating.
The company, which controls more than half of the UK television advertising market, raised its expected merger cost savings target to £120m sterling from £100m.
Pre-tax profit before goodwill amortisation and exceptional items for the six months to June 30 was £132m.
ITV's share of the advertising revenues at the ITV channels - ITV1, ITV2, ITV News and the forthcoming ITV3 - was up 4%, the best performance since 2000. The firm expects its third-quarter ad revenues to increase by 5.2%.
Turnover rose 1% to £989m, below analyst expectations which ranged from £994m to £1.08 billion.
Ratings at the flagship ITV1 channel have suffered from a dismal summer caused by lacklustre programming, the Olympics on the BBC and 'Big Brother' on Channel Four.
The channel's peak time share of viewers for the first half of the year was 31.5%, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous year.
