ITV sees 'great opportunities' for online revenue growth

ITV has reported a 21 per cent increase in online revenues and 44 per cent growth in video views in the past year, with the broadcaster seeing "great opportunities" to grow its online presence by making better use of its vast archive of programmes.

Announcing its end-of-year results today, the company reported online revenues of £34m, up from £28m in 2010.

The ITV Player app was downloaded three million times in 2011 and is now available on Android, Apple and PS3, contributing to a 44 per cent increase in video views last year, at 376 million.

Mobile viewing has also increased rapidly in 2011, representing nine per cent of all video-on-demand content in December.

ITV said it was "continuing to invest in fixing our legacy technology and in improving the quality and distribution of ITV Player" and that its pay strategy was "beginning to gain momentum".

It added: "As well as the latest programmes, ITV has a huge archive of content and the technical advances of the digital market have opened up great opportunities for monetising this archive across the many devices on which people now consume content.

"Our challenge is to choose the best monetisation strategy for our content and to continue to innovate, to open up new revenue streams."

The company's focus for 2012 includes improving the ITV Player, driving online viewing and revenues and the launch of YouView - the open, internet-connected TV catch-up platform.

Total group revenues at ITV were up four per cent year-on-year to £2.14bn and pre-tax profits grew by 24 per cent to £398m. Revenue from broadcasting and online rose by three per cent to £1.82bn.

ITV chief executive Adam Crozier said: "We're now almost two years into our five-year transformation plan and our continued growth in revenue and profit - at a time when the advertising market is broadly flat - demonstrates that we're performing in line with our strategic priorities.

"The increase in non-advertising revenues of £93m, driven by our studios and online businesses, is clear evidence of progress in rebalancing the company and our ability to grow new revenue streams.

"We will increasingly look to content, pay and online as the engines of growth in the UK and internationally as we invest further in our key strategic priorities."

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