Pre-tax profit before digital spending and discontinued operations, including Technicolor which was sold to Thomson Multimedia, coincided with expectations coming in at £65.8m, down from £97m last time.
Advertising revenue was down 6.3% in the first half, but this was not as bad as the 7% drop analysts had been bracing themselves for. Last year's figure is largely believed to have been boosted by dotcom advertising. This time, analysts will be paying attention to whether this is the real reason for this year's fall in revenues or whether it is due to advertisers defecting to other media.
Shares dropped 12p, or 2.9%, in early trading to 400p, recovering slightly by mid morning and rallying to 405.5p.
Carlton has said it will cut its interim dividend substantially and would pay up to 3.2p per share. It said it planned to recommend a final dividend of 5p.
A spokesman said, "Weaker demand for advertising has persisted into our third quarter, particularly from the internet, consumer goods and telecommunications sectors. Although comparison with last year becomes less demanding from our fourth quarter onwards, it is not possible at this stage to predict with any certainty the timing of an underlying improvement in the advertising climate."
Chairman Michael Green said, in March's trading statement, that the first four months of the year had been tough on ITV, the commercial broadcaster it operates in partnership with Granada and some other smaller franchisees. He said he didn't expect to see a return on like-for-like growth until the fourth quarter beginning July.
The company has also pledged to restructure its joint venture digital broadcaster ONdigital. Carlton and Granada believe they will reduce annual investment in the company to £100m each from £150m each.
ONdigital is being renamed as ITV Digital in an attempt to take advantage of cross-media promotion rules that would give it free airtime on ITV.