On Monday (2 November) the OFT referred ITV's planned sale of Friends Reunited to DC Thomson-owned Brightsolid Group to the Competition Commission. ITV announced the £25m sale of Friends Reunited to Brightsolid in August - taking a hit of £145m on its original £170m investment four years ago.
Speaking on a conference call today (5 November) to discuss ITV's interim financial results, Cresswell said the referral was "frustrating and disappointing".
He said: "We had a buyer and now it's delayed but we involve ourselves fully. Hopefully the [Competition] Commission will take a realistic view of it and then hopefully the answer will be a yes."
ITV's results revealed it expects ad revenue to rise 4% in December, following a 3% drop in October and a similar drop in November.
Cresswell said the anticipated upturn is due to a rise in spending from key sectors such as food retailers, telecoms and finance. However, he conceded that awareness of future prospects for the ad market in 2010 was limited with the broadcaster only now in discussions with media agencies about next year.
He also revealed that ITV is in discussions with third-party digital platforms over content distribution. However, he refused to be drawn on the progress of its discussions with Hulu, the online video service owned by News Corp, Disney and NBC Universal, which is expected to enter the UK next year.
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