British broadcaster ITV plans to return £250 million to shareholders via a special dividend after posting a better-than-expected 2014 profit and seeing strong demand from advertisers in the first quarter.

The home of Downton Abbey said it had started 2015 well, with net advertising revenue now forecast to be up 11 per cent in the first quarter, and up 4-7 per cent in April. That compares to the 6 per cent net advertising growth it recorded in 2014.

ITV, which has sought to develop its production capabilities and non-advertising revenue sources to avoid being at the mercy of ad markets, said its non-ad based revenue was now up 10 per cent to make up 45 per cent of total revenue.

The one weakness within the results however was the group’s share of viewing, which has dragged this year. It fell 5 per cent in 2014, compared with a 4 per cent rise in 2013, and ITV said this was in large part due to a weaker performance from its main ITV1 channel.

It said it would increase investment in the programme schedule to reverse this trend.

Full-year pretax profit was up 23 per cent to £712 million. It also increased its full-year dividend by 34 per cent.

"ITV delivered another strong performance in 2014 as we continue to rebalance the business, drive new revenue streams and invest in our future growth," ITV chief executive Adam Crozier said.

“Across ITV we maintained our emphasis on cash generation, cost control and improving margins as we continued to strengthen ITV creatively, commercially and financially.”

Reuters