Broker snap: Buy ITV after Ofcom decision, says Panmure

15th Dec 2011 12:49

Shares of ITV were on the up on Thursday after industry regulator Ofcom decided against referring the TV advertising market to the Competition Commission. Panmure Gordon has reiterated its buy rating on the terrestrial broadcaster.Ofcom launched a review in June into TV advertising to investigate if the current model was anti-competitive or not in customers' best interests. Now that this has been dropped, the news should help to remove the "regulatory discount on ITV" in the stock market, writes Panmure analyst Alex DeGroote."Separately Ofcom is not looking into increasing the amount of minutage on ITV, in terms of advertising inventory. In effect, the status quo appears intact on the back of the Ofcom announcements today," he said.The broker, which recently turned a buyer on ITV on valuation grounds, gives a target price of 80p.Shares were trading 2.46% higher at 62.5p.BC