The broadcaster, which gave no further update on its hunt for a new chief executive to replace outgoing executive chairman Michael Grade, said the UK TV ad market suffered its worst year-on-year decline "on record" over the first half of 2009.
But while total UK TV advertising spend fell by £277m, or 17%, year on year, ITV claimed to have outperformed the market in the first half of this year, with its TV ad revenue down by £108m or 15%.
And it added that the rate of decline has "eased slightly in the second half" of 2009, adding that its TV ad spend is forecast to be down 12% for the third quarter and down 7% in September.
ITV has cut its losses on Friends Reunited and struck a deal with Brightsolid, a subsidiary of Beano and Dandy publisher DC Thomson, for the sale of the social network for £25m.
The sale brings to an end ITV's four-year association with the social network after it acquired it in 2005 for an initial £120m in cash and a three-year performance-based earn-out deal worth up to £55m.
Brightsolid started out in 1995 as Scotland Online and is a provider of IT business services to public and private sector organisations. It now owns online archives ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk and Findmypast.com, an online family history site.
ITV said it continues to implement cost cuts "to mitigate the impact of market weakness". It has delivered £57m of cost savings across programming and off-screen during the first half and said it is on course to deliver at least £155m of total savings over the full year, rising to £215m in 2010 and £285m in 2011.
Across the ITV family, peak viewing share was held at 27.8% in the first half of 2009, while its share of commercial impacts was 39.7%, down from 41.4% in 2008.
Online revenue in the period was £18m, up 6%, with ITV.com revenue doubling to £10m.
ITV has held its net debt flat at £728m, from £730m at the end of 2008, adding that a recent bond exchange has improved its debt profile, reducing a 2011 repayment by nearly £200m and extending £126m of bonds to 2014.
The deficit on ITV's pension schemes was estimated at £538m at the end of June, compared to £178m at the year end. ITV said the increase reflects "a decline in the value of scheme assets and the impact on liabilities of a higher inflation assumption, partly offset by £30m of regular deficit funding".
It added that it is consulting over changes to the scheme, including capping the growth of pensionable salary. ITV estimates that, had such proposals been confirmed at the half year, the deficit would have been £75m-£100m lower than the reported level.
In a statement accompanying the results, Grade said: "Our financial results for the half year reflect the impact of the unprecedented downturn in television advertising, offset by the comprehensive action we are taking in mitigation.
"The rate of market decline has eased slightly in the second half and ITV continues to outperform the market.
"We are maintaining our peak audience share across our channel family and increasing our share of television advertising, while delivering our targeted cost savings."
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