By Mark Baber
March 3 – UK broadcaster ITV is banking on the Euro 2016 Tournament in France to boost its ad revenues after a flat performance in the first quarter.
The prediction was contained in ITV’s 2015 results, published on Wednesday in which the group reports a 6% growth in Net Advertising Revenue (NAR) across all parts of its business to £1,719 million in 2015 compared to £1,629 million in 2014.
According to the report: “Euros football will impact phasing of ITV Family NAR, with Q1 flat while Q2 should be positive.”
In his remarks on the report as a whole, Adam Crozier (pictured), ITV chief executive, commented that: “We have a strong programme slate for 2016, with 50 hours more drama as well as major rugby and football tournaments. ITV uniquely delivers the mass audiences demanded by advertisers.”
Crozier also mentioned that, “for this year we anticipate that the phasing of our television advertising will be very different to 2015 due to the timing of major sporting events. We expect ITV NAR to be flat in Q1, marginally behind the market, against 12% growth in Q1 last year. Q2, which will benefit from the Euros, should be positive. For the full year we again expect to outperform our estimate of the TV ad market.”
Across the ITV business as a whole, the report says: “There was continued good growth across all the major advertising categories and as expected the phasing of UK television advertising was different in 2015 reflecting the timing of major sporting events. Over the full year we increased our estimated share of broadcast to 46.1% (2014: 45.9%) as we once again outperformed our estimate of the UK television advertising market.”
The Euros also take an important place in ITV’s planning assumptions for 2016, with the report indicating that, “Total network programme budget is expected to be around £1,050 million, weighted to the first half due to the timing of sport, including the Euro Football Championship.”
BBC and ITV are sharing the broadcast rights for Euro 2016 with ITV showing England’s first and final group games against Russia and Slovakia as well as the opening match of the tournament between hosts France and Romania on June 10, Northern Ireland v Ukraine, Russia v Wales and the Republic of Ireland’s games against Belgium and Italy.
ITV will have first pick of the round of 16 while the BBC will have the first two picks of the quarter-finals. ITV have first pick of the semi-finals, whilst both BBC and ITV will show the final.
A spokesman for ITV was unwilling to go into specifics, beyond those contained in the report, on predicted advertising revenues for the Euros or predicted viewing figures for the tournament, whilst ITV’s plans for its online offering will be revealed nearer the time.
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