Keheningan Malam

ITV, which announced its first payment to shareholders since 2008 with an interim dividend of 0.4p in results for the six months to 30 June, said it intends to launch a range of pay systems for its online television service ITV Player.

The broadcaster added that total revenues were up 4% year on year to £1.03bn in the six months to the end of June. Within this the broadcasting and online division grew revenues by 3% to £887m.

Online revenues increased by 33% year on year as the ITV Player recorded a 19% increase in average monthly unique users and "long-form video views" – essentially whole TV shows watched via PC or handheld devices such as phones and tablets – rose 64% to 180m.

"Our pay mechanism will launch at the turn of the year; we have picked our partners," said Adam Crozier, chief executive of ITV. "We are working on the consumer proposition, what people are prepared to pay for and what will work and won't work."

Crozier said ITV would probably run a number of different [payment] models in the first few months after the launch. Read more