(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)An advertising recovery and TV production helped ITV (LON:ITV) to offset a downturn in people watching its programmes. ITV reported a 5% rise in net advertising revenue to £838mln on an 11% gain in total revenue to £1.36bn in the six months to June 30.. The company's ITV Studios programme production arm lifted revenue by 23% to £496mln with organic growth of 8%. ITV Studios has boosted growth through the acquisition of a string of rivals including the likes of Leftfield Entertainment and Talpa Media. Distribution business Global Entertainment increased revenue by 18% to £71 mln underpinned by a strong drama slate including new titles Poldark and Schitt's Creek as well as US drama Aquarius and Thunderbirds Are Go. But there was less positive news in the traditional UK broadcasting business where ITV Family's share of viewing was down 4% in the first half with the decline in the main channel partly offset by a 2% improvement across our digital family of channels. Viewing performance was hit by strong competition from the BBC no major sporting event and some shows not performing as well as expected. Chief executive Adam Crozier said: "We expect to see improvements in the second half when we have exclusive rights to the Rugby World Cup as well as a strong slate of high quality drama including Jekyll & Hyde Unforgotten and The Trials of Jimmy Rose. "Our outlook for the remainder of this year is unchanged and we expect to deliver another strong performance in 2015." Adjusted pre-tax profits rose a quarter to £391mln and adjusted earnings per share increased 26% to 7.7p. Shares rose 7.1p to 270.8p. Broker Investec said the results were in line with forecasts or better with potential for consensus upgrades. It advised holding the shares adding that the potential upside from factors such as Liberty Global's rumoured interest in taking over the company was offset by longer term negatives. "We see mid-term TV structural challenges only part offset by long-term retransmission fee/Liberty Global positives. Studios acquisition strategy yet to be proven given price/content assets acquired" the broker said.
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