Media giant ITV’s (LON:ITV) advertising revenues are set to boom this summer, driven by the Olympics and Euro 2012, a broker said today.
With the European Football Championship [Euro 2012] in June, these revenues could be up as much as 15 per cent in June from the previous year, Liberum Capital suggests.
And with the Olympics also on the horizon, the broker reckons advertising for the period could go through the roof, even though ITV is not even broadcasting the games.
“With less than 100 days to go to the Olympics, ITV should benefit from it being the only truly mass market platform for advertisers to associate their brand with the Games, even though it will not show any of the Olympics,” Liberum said.
Early indications are that ITV will see a strong rise in advertising revenues from its flagship channels – what it calls ITV Family – this summer despite a lack of growth in April.
The broker said: “ITV is in a healthy position despite the uncertain macro-environment.”
It believes ITV is likely to outperform the market by 0.5 per cent and says Channel 4 will be the main loser.
The broker has raised its target price for the company by 5 pence to 140 pence and reiterated its ‘buy’ recommendation.
Shares were up in early trading at 87.65 pence.