Euro 2004 was a big success for ITV, providing its sales operation with its strongest growth in revenue since the dot com boom in 2000.

ITV1’s advertising revenue was up an impressive 17%, outperforming the total TV market spend across all the other commercial broadcasters put together with an estimated £25m extra ploughed into the overall market during June due to Euro 2004.

England’s opening two group games against France and Switzerland were watched by an average of 17.6m and 14.2m, reaching peaks of 20.7m and 17m and Simon Lent, ITV’s London Sales Leader, said: ‘Demand for the two England games was exceptional. We could have sold the minutage twice over!’

He added: ‘Through pro-active upfront selling , we were able to generate high levels of relevant brand count across all the key categories – cars (Ford, Vauxhall, Renault), beers (Budwieser, Carling, Carlsberg, Guinness ), telecoms (BT, T Mobile, Phones for U, Virgin Mobile ) and other male advertisers such as, Nike, Adidas, Ronseal, Mastercard, AOL.’

ITV1’s male audience for Euro 2004 increased by 50% to 60% male for all of the matches covered. This compares with ITV1’s year-to-date profile of 41% male in all-time and 40% in peak-time.

As well as the England games, the Germany v Czech Republic group match attracted an audience of 8.2m, 35% share with 45% men, and the semi-final between the Czech Republic and Greece an 8m average with 37% share and 49% of men.

For more details contact:

Gary Double
ITV Sport – 07768 825114/01483 750662
Or
Louise Dorey, ITV Sales
020 7316 3165