UK commercial broadcaster ITV has said that additional advertising activities for its coverage of the 2015 Rugby World Cup rugby union national team tournament helped it to achieve year-on-year revenue growth over the nine months through to September 30.
Total external revenue amounted to just over £2bn (€2.9bn/$3.1bn) in the nine months, up 13 per cent on the £1.8bn posted in the corresponding period last year.
The ITV Broadcast & Online division generated the majority of this total amount, collecting £1.5bn in the period, up seven per cent on the previous year.
Adam Crozier, chief executive of ITV, said the broadcaster was boosted by an increase in advertising spending before and during the Rugby World Cup. ITV broadcast live coverage of the tournament, which took place in England and Wales from September 18 to October 31. ITV was also the host broadcaster.
Crozier said the broadcaster is now “on track” to post double-digit profit growth for the full-year.
“As we expected, share of viewing has improved in the second half driven by strong performances in daytime, the soaps and the Rugby World Cup, and continuing this trend remains a key focus for the business,” he said. “We’re also strengthening our broadcast business with the proposed acquisition of the television assets of UTV.
“We are confident of further good growth across ITV for the remainder of this year and into 2016 as we continue to exploit our integrated producer broadcaster model in the UK and to build a global content business of scale.”