British TV group Carlton Communications this morning blamed an advertising slump for a 39 per cent fall in annual underlying profits and said it was not considering ditching its digital TV joint venture.
Carlton - part-owner of Britain's largest commercial TV network, ITV - said it was exploring all options for ITV Digital and was looking to cut costs by at least $100 million in 2001/02.
ITV Digital is owned by Carlton and media group Granada and has been a drag on the shares prices of both.
Carlton said pre-tax profit from continuing businesses before goodwill and digital investment was £118 million for the year ended September 30th, above market forecasts of £94 million-£103 million. Revenue rose 5 per cent to £1.03 billion pounds.
Shares in Carlton, which have shed over 60 per cent of their value this year, rose 2.7 per cent to 220-3/4 pence at 9 a.m. The stock has lagged the UK All Share index by almost 60 per cent in the year to date.
The company halved its annual dividend to 8.275 pence from 16.55p a year before.
When asked whether quitting ITV Digital was an option, chief executive Mr Gerry Murphy said in an interview: "We are looking at more creative solutions than that".
Mr Murphy said Carlton shed 300 jobs in the financial year just ended, and plans to cut 100 more this year, bringing the total workforce down to about 3,200.