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ITV blames ad revenue drop on 'political and economic uncertainty'

ITV (Frankfurt: A0BLQP - news) has blamed an 8% fall in net advertising revenues from £838m to £769m on continuing "political and economic uncertainty".

The commercial broadcaster, home to shows such as The X Factor and Love Island, reported pre-tax profit fell 16% to £259m in the six months to June 30.

Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) external revenues, including advertising, programme sales and online, fell 3% to £1.46bn in the the first half of the year.

Chairman Peter Bazalgette said advertising revenue was likely to continue to slide with the company expecting a further 4% drop in the the third quarter.

He said: "ITV's performance in the first six months of the year is very much as we anticipated and our guidance for the full year remains unchanged.

"We expect ITV Family net advertising revenues in quarter three to be down around 4%, again impacted by wider economic uncertainty, and over the full year we expect to outperform the TV advertising market."

Carolyn McCall is leaving easyJet to run ITV as its new chief executive in January 2018.