Shares in ITV soared on Wednesday after the broadcaster said it was on track to enjoy the best year for advertising revenues in its 66-year history, as businesses pour money into marketing to drive a post-pandemic recovery. Investors sent shares in ITV – which said it was now performing more strongly than in 2019 before the pandemic – up more than 13%, making the broadcaster the strongest performing stock among the FTSE 100. The UK’s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster said total advertising revenue for the first nine months surged 30% year on year to £1.3bn. The company expects total ad revenues for the year, including the growing income from ads on its streaming service, ITV Hub, to be up by 24% compared with 2020 to hit an all-time high. The period in the run-up to Christmas is expected to be even better, with record amounts forecast to be spent on advertising. ITV said that in the final three months of the year – when it usually makes about 30% of its annual ad income – revenues will be up as much as 13% year on year. “2021 looks set to have the highest revenue in ITV’s history,” said Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of ITV. “By any standards ITV has had an outstanding nine months.” Total revenues including ITV Studios, which makes and sells shows such as Coronation Street, Line of Duty and Come Dine With Me, rose 28% year on year to £2.38bn in the first nine months of 2020. This is 8% higher than in 2019. ITV Studios, which grew revenues by 32% to £1.2bn in the first nine months, has created hits for its channels this year including Love Island, The Real Manhunt: The Night Stalker and Vera. It has also produced the crime drama Vigil for the BBC, Physical for Apple TV+ and season two of Snowpiercer for Netflix. “Revenue from each business is up both on last year and 2019,” said McCall, who said content spend would hit £1.16bn next year thanks to programming including football’s World Cup and investment in dramas. The broadcaster said the share of total TV viewing taken by its main ITV channel increased in the first nine months. However, total viewing including across its digital channel portfolio fell 5% year on year. McCall said ITV Hub was becoming an “increasingly scaled digital business” with monthly active users up a fifth year on year in the first nine months to 9.6 million, and online viewing climbing 39% year on year to 494m hours. As a result video-on-demand (VOD) advertising grew 54% year on year across the period. “ITV is witnessing a strong year and it’s clear that a mix of live linear and VOD-based advertising strategies are delivering positive returns,” said Simon Willis, the chief investment officer at GroupM, the media division of the advertising and marketing service group WPP. “Advertisers will welcome these results as ITV’s continued transformation will enable them to harness more opportunities across its services and enable them to reach consumers more effectively.”