ITV reports fast DTV penetration

net1

Amid news of accelerating half-year profits fuelled by growing ad revenues, ITV said that it has high hopes it will be able to persuade Ofcom to significantly reduce its licence payments owing to a faster-than-expected move to digital TV.

ITV is deep in negotiations with Ofcom regarding the cost of its broadcasting licences, estimated to be currently running at £200m a year, due for renewal in mid-2005. The company said that it is now widely accepted that a range of factors will affect these, such as lower-than-expected total television advertising growth, faster digital penetration than anticipated and an accelerated timetable to digital switchover. This means that the value of the ITV analogue licences has declined, and the company will therefore be looking to achieve significant savings on its licence payments.

ITV is also in discussion with Ofcom regarding its review of public service obligations across all terrestrial channels. This may impact the level of public service genre programming on ITV1, which currently accounts for around a third of the schedule. Ofcom will publish its conclusions and recommendations later in 2004.