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The network, which broadcasts ratings winners such as 'Dancing on Ice' and Primeval', said that its total ad revenues were likely to fall by 4.5% in the first quarter of this year, compared with fall of less than 1% for the total television advertising market during the same period.

The broadcaster said that the main ITV1 channel would continue to show declines in advertising revenue, after recording a 12% dip during 2006.

ITV reported a drop in 2006 revenues to £2.18bn, compared with £2.19bn the previous year. Operating profit also dropped to £264m from £329m.

Its digital channels showed growth, with revenue up 41% to £157m, but the broadcaster said that this would not fully redress the drop in revenues for the main ITV1 channel.

ITV said that a challenging advertising market was to blame for the downturn in its fortunes, and Grade said that a "lack of innovation" had hampered the network's growth.

The executive chairman said that his mission for the network was now to "return the business to full growth".

"Our overall strategy is right, but we need to improve our allocation of resources in order to accelerate the rate of improvement across all our businesses.

"ITV is a hugely popular brand with the UK's largest family of commercial channels, driven by quality programmes from the biggest and most successful commercial production business in the UK.

"This in turn enables us to extend our value chain with online distribution. These unique strengths in brand, content and distribution are cause for considerable optimism in our ability to deliver real value for our viewers, advertisers and shareholders."

Grade added that his job was now to "build a sense of confidence in our people and the wider creative community to ensure that together we deliver more consistently for our viewers our customers and our shareholders".

Earlier this week, ITV said that it was to temporarily suspended all its premium interactive services and withdrawn its gaming channel ITV Play in response to the controversy surrounding premium-rate phone numbers, which could put some of its top shows including 'X-Factor' and 'Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway' under threat.

Under direction from Grade, it appointed independent auditor Deloitte to conduct a complete review of all premium-rate interactive services in its programmes.

The investigation will cover all premium-rate landline, mobile, excluding pay download, and red button activity.