ITV unveils profits rise

Commercial television broadcaster ITV plc has announced a 36% rise in profits.
The company announced that profits rose to £452 million, despite a fall of 3.3% to £1.5 billion in advertising revenues at its flagship ITV1 channel.
However, growth at ITV2 and ITV3 helped to push overall advertising revenues up 2.7%. Operating profit also increased by 42% to £460 million
The company, which is home to such popular shows as 'Coronation Street' and 'X Factor', also warned that it expected total advertising revenue to drop by 10% during the first quarter of 2006, partly because of Easter and the World Cup, which will both occur in the second quarter.
However, ITV also announced a £200 million four-year advertising deal with consumer products group Unilever.
The company also announced that it planned to buy back £300 million of shares and raise its final dividend by 38% to 1.8p.
ITV also announced plans to launch a new TV channel, ITV Play, in April and hoped that it would make profits of £20 million within its first year.
The company announced that it had halved its pension fund deficit from £672 million in 2004 to £325 million now.
Commenting on the figures, Charles Allen, Chief Executive of ITV, said: "ITV has had another very successful year with strong profit growth helping us to double our profits in the last two years. We have strong cash flow, which has allowed us to invest in our businesses, improve the pension position and still be able to return cash to shareholders.
"These results demonstrate that we are delivering ITV's digital future today. We have transformed ITV from an analogue, single channel federation to a multi-channel, multi-platform, content-driven business firmly focused on the needs of viewers and advertisers."
(KMcA/GB)