LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's ITV (LON:ITV) said advertising had rebounded strongly, with June delivering the largest ad revenue for the month for the broadcaster in its history as it benefited from the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and the Euros.
The company, which broadcast England's semi-final victory over Denmark in Euro 2020 to a peak of 27.6 million people this month, said its total external revenue for the first half rose 27% to 1.55 billion pounds ($2.15 billion).
Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said ITV was emerging from the worst effects of the pandemic.
"We are optimistic about the future, despite the ongoing pandemic risk on our advertising and ITV Studios revenues," she said on Wednesday.
Underlining the strength of the ad recovery, ITV said total ad revenue for June and July was expected to be 16% higher than the same period in 2018, when it broadcast the Football World Cup and series 4 of its reality TV hit Love Island.
McCall said ITV would restart a progressive dividend policy based on a notional dividend of 5 pence a share, with a first payout of 3.3 pence a share proposed at the full year.
Adjusted core earnings for the first half nearly doubled to 327 million pounds, it said, driven by the strong recovery in advertising, resumption of production in its studio business and tight cost control.
($1 = 0.7210 pounds)