McCall Returns to Media at ITV Just as Brexit Hits Ad Sales
- Broadcaster’s cut jobs, costs amid slowdown worsened by Brexit
- McCall, departing EasyJet, helped transform Europe aviation
EasyJet CEO McCall to Leave to Run ITV
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When Carolyn McCall left the media world for the airline industry seven years ago, newspaper publishers were under siege from a shift online that sucked away advertising revenue. Now she’s coming back to run ITV Plc, just as the battleground has moved to television.
Advertisers from food to finance to cosmetics, squeezed by Brexit and a slowing U.K. economy, are busy shifting television ad dollars to Facebook and YouTube as they reassess marketing budgets. Viewers, meanwhile, are tuning in to Netflix and Amazon Prime. TV advertising is forecast to drop 2.7 percent in the U.K. this year, according to GroupM. The last decline was in 2012.