Roland Jackson British broadcaster ITV yesterday reported a net loss of £2.55 billion last year, citing declining advertising revenue and the harsh economic climate, and axed 600 jobs.
"Current conditions in the advertising market are the most challenging I have experienced in over 30 years in UK broadcasting," Chairman Michael Grade said in a results statement.
"This is reflected both in our financial results for 2008 and the tough actions we are announcing today."
The annual loss, equivalent to £2.86 billion, compared with a net profit of £137 million in 2007. Revenues also sank 2.55 per cent to 2.029 billion pounds last year.
ITV said it had cut the value of its assets by almost £2.7 billion because of "the continuing deterioration in market forecasts and weakness in online advertising."
Adjusted pre-tax profit, excluding the huge write-down, fell 41 per cent to £167 million last year.
Britain's biggest commercial television network also said it planned to sell profitable social networking website Friends Reunited to focus on online video services.
ITV bought Friends Reunited in 2005 for £120 million - but it has since been eclipsed by rival sites Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
Meanwhile, the British group outlined cost-cutting plans as it sought to weather the tough economic climate, including 600 jobs cuts to help achieve annual cost savings of £245 million in 2011.
"Significant savings will be delivered in central services and across ITV Studios operations outside London. As a result, there will be a further reduction in headcount of around 600 posts across ITV," the broadcaster added.
ITV also announced that it would scrap its shareholder dividend amid worsening conditions in the advertising market."Trading in 2009 re-mains uncertain," added Mr Grade.
"However we expect to continue to outperform the market, increasing our share of television advertising revenues for the full year once again."
In late morning trade, ITV shares sank 1.05 per cent to 23.5 pence on London's second-tier FTSE 250 index, which was 1.82 per cent higher at 5,957.27 points.
"The ITV figures were pretty gloomy but that was in line with expectations," said Chris Bennett, senior trader at MF Global unit ChoiceOdds.
"They are in one of the toughest sectors in a very depressed economic cycle and investor sentiment indicates that the fall in price may not be regained for some time to come."