England’s penalty shootout heroics on Tuesday night have not only lifted the nation’s spirits, they’ve also helped to boost the value of free-to-air broadcaster ITV plc (LON:ITV).
Shares are up more than 1.2% to 173p today after figures showed that national team’s victory over Colombia was watched by almost 24mln people.
It’s coming home…
At one point, 9.52pm to be precise, roughly four in five people watching TV in the UK were tuned in to ITV 1.
The ultimate ‘coming home’ meme. Cannot be bettered. pic.twitter.com/95ora6Md4v
— RiotBadger™ (@riotbadger) July 4, 2018
There was also some good news for sister channel ITV 2 after health and beauty retailer Superdrug, the main sponsor of Love Island, reported a surge in profits on the back of a big advertising campaign around the reality TV show.
Love Island attracted an average of almost 4mln viewers in its opening week compared with 2.2mln in 2017.
“With a 51% share of the very attractive 18-24 demographic, [the show] should also help boost ITV’s performance,” wrote Liberum analyst Ian Whittaker wrote last week.
READ: The £136mln Love Island effect
Those kinds of numbers are sure to sit well with companies which, on the whole, have been cutting their advertising over the past year or so.
ITV, which is due to publish its interim report on July 25, has previously guided for “broadly flat” advertising growth in the first half and +2% for total advertising.
“We think there could be some upside risk to that, in particular June’s +17% TV growth guidance given the success of the World Cup and the return of Love Island.”