Commercial impacts have fallen from 38.8% at the beginning of 2005 to 34.9% at the start of 2006, Sir Peter Burt, ITV chairman, said at the broadcaster's annual general meeting today.
The broadcaster says that as digital multichannel penetration continues its rapid growth, it would expect to see ITV's share of commercial impacts stabilise.
This is despite the fact that the broadcaster said that ITV1 ad revenue will be down 1.6% in the second quarter, compared with a 3.3% growth for the total television market, and that the total network ad revenue would be down 4% in the first half of 2006.
Burt said that in the first 15 weeks of 2006 ITV's digital channels, including ITV2, ITV3, male-orientated ITV4, children's channel CITV and interactive gaming channel ITV Play, increased commercial impacts by 6.1%. ITV2 and ITV3, it says, were the top two digital channels in Freeview homes during the period and ITV Play was already recording a profit of £2m a month for the network.
According to ITV, the network has a viewing share of 27% in terrestrial homes, compared with 20% in Freeview homes and 17% in multichannel households.
Burt said: "We have a clear focus on improving our efficiency and building on the doubling of profits over the last two years. We are implementing our strategy for growth through strengthening our channels, exploiting content and developing new revenue streams.
He added: "Our consumer division is demonstrating some early successes with businesses like SDN, Friends Reunited and ITV Play and we will continue to seek additional areas to leverage the value of our content."
ITV has recently concentrated on its digital presence, launching CITV across the Freeview platform on March 11 and ITV Play on April 19. The broadcaster also bought the online platform Friends Reunited for £120m in December 2005.
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