ITV to sell Friends Reunited, axe 600 jobs
Ad revs plummet
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Broadcaster ITV is slashing 600 jobs and looking to sell its Friends Reunited and Scoot websites after reporting a net loss of £2.55bn last year.
“Current conditions in the advertising market are the most challenging I have experienced in over 30 years in UK broadcasting,” said chairman Michael Grade.
“This is reflected both in our financial results for 2008 and the tough actions we are announcing today.”
ITV confirmed rumours, which have been circulating since the start of the year, that it plans to sell its proto-social network site Friends Reunited.
The country’s largest commercial broadcaster bought Friends Reunited in 2005 for £120m, which has been rapidly superseded by the likes of MySpace and Facebook.
ITV did not release individual figures on what profit or loss was made at Friends Reunited for the year ended 31 December 2008. In the six months to June last year the website pulled in revenues of £10m, down £1m on the same a period in 2007.
ITV also confirmed today that it was looking to dispose of its UK business finder website Scoot.
The company has cut the value of its assets by close to £2.7bn citing "the continuing deterioration in market forecasts and weakness in online advertising."
Advertising sales dropped four per cent to £1.43bn in 2008, marginally ahead of the overall market decline of five per cent, said ITV. The £2.55bn net loss compares with a net income of £137m in 2007.
Adjusted pre-tax profit, excluding a massive write-down, plummeted 41 per cent to £167m last year.
“The board therefore recognises that the 2012 revenue targets set in 2007 are no longer appropriate and we are focusing on our core business as a producer-broadcaster, on reducing our costs and on cash generation,” said Grade.
ITV said it would slash 600 jobs across the company in the latest round of job cuts. In September last year the broadcaster said it would let go of around 1,000 workers by early 2009.
The firm said it has recommended a suspension of its dividend and expects to see ad revenue decline by 17 per cent in the first quarter. ®
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COMMENTS
@Sir Wiggum
A prohibition on horse feed = Strabane
Straw-ban, geddit?
Quizmania
Does anyone else think ITV's best chance here is to bring back Quizmania with such lovely presenters as Debbie King and Greggles? I'm sure if they put that on ITV1 in a primtime evening slot they'd slaughter Doctor Who and anything else the BBC could come up with. And it would make lots of money.
It's truely is criminal that the excelent Brian Dowling and the other one whose name I forget now haven't been back on ITV since The Mint finished.
PS. Didn't Jayne Sharp age! She looked so youthful in Wudya Cudya back in the golden age of ITV but now she's like Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous. Know what I mean?
Cost cutting idea
If they really want to save money, why not get rid of ITV 2, ITV 2+1, ITV 3 etc. and just have one ITV channel?
I blame the Tories for this anyway, if they hadn't allowed meja companies to buy up each other we would still have quality regional broadcasting. If a franchise owner wasn't keeping up with the standard required they would loose out to another bidder at the next renewal date.
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