ITV says net ad sales flat in Jan-Aug

LONDON (Reuters) - ITV, Britain's biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster, said its net advertising revenues (NAR) were flat in the first eight months compared with a fall of about 1 percent in the market and cut some mid-term targets in light of economic uncertainty.

In September, NAR would likely drop 20 percent, ITV said on Wednesday, with the overall market forecast 17 percent down from last September, when the rugby World Cup boosted ad spending.

ITV said first-half group sales rose 3 percent to 1.031 billion pounds, ahead of analysts' consensus of 1.020 billion pounds, thanks to strong performances by its broadcasting, global content and online units.

Earnings before interest, tax and amortisation fell 20 percent to 121 million pounds, due to heavy costs for sports operations, in particular the Euro 2008 soccer championship.

"We cannot control the economic environment in which we operate. As a result of the recent slowdown in the television advertising market, the board has taken some tough decisions," Executive Chairman Michael Grade said in a statement.

ITV targeted an extra 35 million pounds of cost savings by the end of 2010 and halved its interim dividend to 0.675 pence, but said it was committed to maintaining investment to position itself for a future market recovery.

The broadcaster also took a non-cash impairment charge of 1.6 billion pounds as a result of reduced advertising market forecasts for this year and next.

For its global content business, in which ITV makes programmes for itself and others, the broadcaster said it now targeted a revenue run rate of 1 billion pounds by end-2012, instead of doubling its revenues to 1.2 billion pounds by then.

In online, it pushed back its 150 million-pound revenue target to the end of 2012 from 2010.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Paul Bolding)