England’s ITV Sees Surge In Ad Revenue And Dip In Share Value

Britain’s ITV is experiencing a bit of dissonance between the success of their television programs, X Factor and Downtown Abbey, and a drop in the price of it’s shares.

One 30-second advertisement to be shown during the weekend of the X-Factor finale will cost advertisers round a quarter million pounds. Additionally, Downtown Abbey, another program on the network, managed to garner an astonishing 10 million viewers for its finale.

Still, however, ITV shares dropped almost 4 points (3.8pc) at noon on Tuesday, leaving its value at 68.3p.

Adam Crozier, the chief executive of ITV, said, “The economic outlook for 2011 is uncertain and we continue to plan on a cautious basis.” He continued, saying, “The television advertising market has continued to recover strongly. However, this does not disguise the significant challenges ITV faces and we remain focused on delivering the five-year transformation plan.”

ITV was home to 982 of the top 1,000 most-watched programs on commercial television in 2009.