According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, ITV is facing a 18.7% drop in advertising revenues year on year for the month of June, although these figures are not as bad as they initially appear, because last year's included revenues from the World Cup.
Ad revenues for July are set to fall 10.1%, according to the report, while August is forecast to be down 9%. In June, it has slipped 13.6%.
Carlton and Granada are waiting to hear from the Competition Commission about their impending £2.6bn merger. The commission is set to report its findings on June 25, but it may extend the inquiry for a further three months.
Carlton is believed to be wanting to shore up its financial position to make it a more attractive takeover target if the merger is scuppered.
Carlton's head of planning Viscount Caldecote is said to have asked the ITV network to look at the effect cutting programme budgets would have on audience figures and advertising revenues. The broadcaster is examining budget cuts up to the value of £200m.
If the merger of Carlton and Granada falls through, either company could be subject to a takeover bid.
Venture capitalist Apax Partners is understood to have looked into buying either ITV company if the deal falls through and is reported to have held talks with former Channel 5 chief executive David Elstein and US children's programming guru Haim Saban about a possible bid. Elstein is also thought to have spoken to Texas Pacific about finance for a bid.
Apax Partners is believed to have carried out a study on both ITV companies, but concluded that both companies' share prices are too high at the moment.
Carlton and Granada recently reported strong results for the six months to the end of March. Granada said its pre-tax profits rose 35% to £65m, while Carlton's profit hit £37m compared with a loss of £179.4m for the same period last year.
Granada's ITV ad revenue increased by 1% to £442m and Carlton increased its share of total TV advertising by 1.2%.
Carlton is reported to have a market capitalisation of £936m and Granada is valued at £2.5bn.
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