For Broadcast March 06, 2008

Simon Shaps' legacy at ITV is a much-reduced CRR ratchet for advertisers in 2008 after he helped the channel outperform its commercial rivals' audience share last year.

Executive chairman Michael Grade said that if the broadcaster can build its net advertising revenues (NAR) in 2008, it can maintain the momentum of improved audience share achieved in 2007.

Net advertising revenues for ITV1 were down 4% to £1.22m in the year to 31 December 2007, from £1.28m in 2006, in part due to a discount from the 10% CRR ratchet resulting from a poor ratings performance in 2006. The CRR ratchet will drop to 3.3% in 2008, helped by the audience share that Shaps helped to achieve in 2007.

ITV's share of viewing fell by 2.1% over the course of 2007, less than the 10.3% loss felt by C4 or the 10.1% fall at Five. ITV1's share of impacts was down 3.2%, while C4's fell 7.7% and Five's 11%.

Once ITV's digital channels are taken into account, ITV's share of commercial impacts was actually up 10.9%.

"This is the first time that ITV1 has outperformed the market in revenue terms since the second quarter of 2000, which is an exceptional performance," said Grade.