The city has reacted fairly positively to the latest set of ITV financial results, which seem to suggest that the company is starting to reduce its reliance on advertising.

The company”s interim results for year ending December 31, 2011 show that non-advertising revenues were up £93m (11%) to £922m. This was mainly driven by revenue growth from ITV”s UK and international studios.

Commenting, ITV CEO Adam Crozier said: “We”re almost two years into our five-year Transformation Plan and our continued growth in revenue and profit – at a time when the advertising market is broadly flat – demonstrates that we”re performing in line with our strategic priorities. The increase in non-advertising revenues, driven by our studios and online businesses, is evidence of progress in rebalancing the Company and our ability to grow new revenue streams. Our financial position was further strengthened during the year through our ongoing focus on cash generation and cost reduction. We have our first positive net cash position since ITV was created in 2004 and more than delivered our targeted cost savings.”

Picking out some headlines, Crozier said: “ITV Studios has made real progress creatively and operationally both in the UK and internationally. We have delivered double-digit revenue growth and a 28% increase in new commissions to 111, of which 45 are international. The VOD and pay deals we recently signed with Sky, Netflix and Lovefilm open up new pay revenue streams, which we will continue to build as part of our pay strategy.”

The one concern is that ITV, for all its efforts, is still very dependent on the state of the advertising market. Although its ad revenue was up slightly in 2011, Crozier cautioned that it is “expected to be down 2% in Q1. We remain cautious on the market outlook for 2012 but we expect to outperform the market for the full year.”