Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster ITV said today the performance of its main channel had begun to stabilise as the decline in ratings slowed but advertising revenue was still down 9 per cent.
The group, home to long-running soap opera "Coronation Street", said its share of the audience watching commercial television was down 5.6 per cent for ITV1 in the first half of the year, compared to down 9.1 per cent in the same period in 2006.
Net advertising revenue (NAR) for the channel was down 9 per cent and down 5 per cent for the whole network in the first half of the year compared with an overall market down 0.3 per cent. It was up 24 per cent for the digital channels and GMTV.
ITV said in May it expected NAR to be down 9.6 per cent at ITV1 for the six months, meaning Wednesday's update reflected a slight improvement.
"Returning stability in the total TV advertising market has been an important feature of the first half, as has the improving schedule performance," John Cresswell, ITV's chief operating officer, said.
By 10.25am ITV shares were down 0.7 per cent at 114.2 pence, valuing the firm at about £4.5 billion sterling.