ITV has furloughed around 800 staff – or 15% of its UK workforce – mostly within its ITV Studios division.
It has also launched plans to save around £60 million this year to help offset the coronavirus impact.
Carolyn McCall, ITV chief executive, said: “ITV has taken swift and decisive action to manage and mitigate the impact of Covid-19 by focusing on our people and their safety, and by continuing to reduce costs and tightly manage our cashflow and liquidity.”
She added: “We are now very focused on emerging from this crisis in a strong position, continuing to offer advertisers effective marketing opportunities and making preparations to restart productions safely.”
ITV has said demand for advertising plunged 42% in April as marketing spend ground to a halt amid the coronavirus crisis, while it confirmed ITV Studios has had to pause most of its productions due to lockdowns worldwide.
The broadcasting giant said it had seen a “significant” hit on ad spend across most categories, with the impact being felt mostly from last month.
Results for the first quarter to the end of March showed total external revenues fell 7% at £694 million, while turnover in its production arm ITV Studios was down 11% at £342 million as it began to feel the impact as social distancing restrictions came into force.
