WEE THINKER
ITV HOPES OPRAH CAN REVIVE PROFIT
Across
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Appalled when silver hat’s removed (6) Barney home for Indian lunch (6) Head of religion goes in to imagine awfully bad headache (8) Missing? Behold on street (4) Caution is welcome although rarely needed initially (4) Banter not good to the elderly (8) Stick notice in this place (6) Gail or different girl (6) I take pet out and persevere (4,2,2) Self-important sounding blood vessel (4) Victim has to talk to God out loud (4) Going against the current, arm upset, twisted (8) Soaks when walks about East (6) Wickedly alters warnings (6)
Down
2 3 4 5 6
Problem in trading? Maintain support to be stoical (4,3,4,2) Change the score if run in a series (7) Protector going round the limb (7) Walk on strand, homeless (5) Man’s guilt’s lifelong, as you may see (5) 7 13 14 16 17
If I can’t sing in production, that’s not important (13) Proceed to watch, it’s said, what sailors do (2,2,3) Old boy adds poem to side of coin (7) Tax system, note, for money recipient (5) French city excursions (5)
ITV is banking on a Meghan and Harry boost after revealing a pandemic-induced slump in annual profits.
The broadcaster reportedly paid £1million to screen Oprah Winfrey’s explosive interview with the pair on Monday but raked in extra advertising around it.
The firm is hoping it marks the start of a recovery after it laid bare the impact of the Covid crisis on the business last year.
Total revenue tumbled 16 per cent to just under £2.8billion, with both the money it gets from advertising and making programmes for other broadcasters falling sharply.
Profits tanked by 38 per cent to £325million. But nearly all its programmes are now back in production and ITV said advertising revenue was set to be up by around eight per cent in March, and by an expected 60-75 per cent in April.
ITV boss Carolyn McCall said: “We’re definitely seeing a real recovery there.
“Those numbers in April really tell the story.”
ITV singled out on-screen successes this year such as Dancing On Ice and The Masked Singer.
Another milestone was subscription video-on-demand service BritBox hitting 500,000 subscribers in Januarwy.
ITV launched the service, which also shows Channel 4 and Channel 5 content, in partnership with the BBC.