Earnings: ITV Web Revs Creep Toward 2010 Target
By Robert Andrews - Wed 14 May 2008 11:26 PM PST
ITV’s (LSE: ITV) online revenue crept up to just £9 million in Q108, from £8 million in Q107. That’s still some way off the target of tripling online to £150 million annually by 2010. And the next quarters will lose the benefit of Friends Reunited subscription fees, which were dropped last month in favour of ad-supported but had constituted two thirds of all online revenue through 2007.
Still, monthly video views are up 76 percent by the start of the year to 9.9 million, no doubt thanks in part to UI improvements made to the ITV.com catch-up facility. The site claimed 34.8 percent more traffic at 6.2 million unique users. Project Kangaroo is said only to be “on track to launch later this year”.
Overall, a more positive quarter for an ITV that had been depressed by falling ad revenue and audience share - group revenue is up three percent to £492 million, with ad revenue rising two percent. ITV says it’s on track to make £41 million savings by year’s end plus, controversially, shave £40 million off regional news budgets. Today it said it’s moving on to identify more savings next year “to enhance earnings and fund digital investment”.
From the investors call: COO John Cresswell offered a firmer Kangaroo launch date, said to be autumn (via Guardian): “It is going really well. Ashley’s appointment is fantastic. With all new technical launches, you always have a soft launch before you unveil the whole thing. It is about making sure that when the consumer gets to it, it won’t fall over. No one wants a [Heathrow] Terminal 5 online. We are pretty confident.”
Posted in: Companies, ITV, Money, Earnings
