ITV warns of up to 10% fall in fourth-quarter advertising revenue

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - ITV, the British broadcaster that has agreed to sell its channels and streaming business to Sky, said on Wednesday it expected advertising revenue to decline by as much as 10% in the important final quarter.

• "Due to the weaker demand for advertising, we expect TAR (total advertising revenue) to be down around 5-10% in Q4 and down around 2-3% for the full year 2026," it said

• Analysts had expected advertising in the quarter to fall by 1.8% on average

• To align costs with advertiser demand, ITV has identified £30 million of additional temporary savings in Q4, including £25 million of content savings

• Total revenue for the first nine months to end-September fell 1% to £2.76 billion ($3.68 billion), broadly in line with analyst expectations

• Total advertising revenue was down 1% year-on-year for the nine-month period, slightly below previous guidance impacted by macroeconomic uncertainty. Third-quarter ad revenue was down 8%

• ITV said it expected ITV Studios to deliver good revenue growth over the full year, driven by external revenue. Revenue, margin and profit will be heavily weighted to Q4

• Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said: "Despite a more challenging market, we remain on track to deliver good revenue growth in ITV Studios and continued profitable digital revenue growth in Media & Entertainment (M&E) over the full year."

($1 = 0.7492 pounds)

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young)