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ITV to return 250 million pounds via special dividend

LONDON (Reuters) - British broadcaster ITV plans to return 250 million pounds ($383.5 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 percent in the first quarter, and up 4-7 percent in April. That compares to the 6 percent 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 percent to make up 45 percent 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 percent in 2014, compared with a 4 percent 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 percent to 712 million pounds, compared with a forecast of 681 million pounds according to Thomson Reuters data. It also increased its full-year dividend by 34 percent. "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." ($1 = 0.6519 pounds) (Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Sarah Young)