ITV eyes life after near-death drop ©Rex ITV success: I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here ITV appears to have learnt from its "near-death experience" at the height of the last advertising recession. The stark words - used in 2010 by Michael Grade, the broadcaster's former executive chairman - referred to a sudden downturn in 2009. ITV had been predicting that airtime sales for April that year would be flat to down 5 per cent. Mr Grade recalled the moment he was told that instead the flash forecast was for a fall of 23 per cent. With each 1 percentage point drop in the TV ad market then equating to a £15m fall in revenues, it is easy to sympathise with his alarm. The new management team - installed by the beginning of 2010 and led by chairman Archie Norman and chief executive Adam Crozier - has been determined not to endure such pain again. By the end of 2010, helped by a revival in the ad market, net debt was trimmed to £188m from more than £600m the year before. The broadcaster now sits on net cash of more than £200m. It is also on an established path to expand its content business, where revenues are more stable. This march continues. This week ITV announced a $25.6m purchase of a 60 per cent stake in High Noon Entertainment, a US maker of reality and entertainment shows such as Cake Boss. This marks the sixth significant content acquisition by the company in just over a year, all part of the broadcaster's five-year transformation plan to reduce its dependence on the volatile ad market. ITV could afford a much bigger deal, analysts say, with firepower to digest a purchase of as much as £800m if it took its net debt to a relatively unchallenging one times earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation. But most believe the company will shy away from such a transformative deal, partly because of a dearth of sizeable opportunities. "It does seem to be a gradual build-up rather than a single Promethean purchase - and the market probably prefers it that way," says one media analyst. This gradual approach, with limited integration risks, is slowly having an impact. At the end of 2012, content revenues accounted for 16.5 per cent of group revenues, up from 15 per cent the year before. The company's long-term aim is to get content revenues to half its business. Shares in ITV were trading on Friday at 130.30p, having fallen to as low as 17p in 2009 at the height of the ad recession. A greater focus on content should help ITV's share price further over time, analysts say, as the market affords higher ratings to more stable content businesses than broadcasters. The reason is healthy - and steady - global demand for quality English language content, which is benefiting companies such as BBC Worldwide and ITV Studios, ITV's content arm, which can offer much lower risk tried-and-tested formats. "We see no let-up as to the possibilities of content opportunities," says Toby Syfret, TV analyst at Enders Analysis. There will be a continued need in developed markets but sales can also improve in developing markets like Brazil and India. Global broadcasters continue to snap up quality shows - ITV's Titanic was sold in more than 100 territories. But content makers such as ITV Studios are also being helped by the proliferation of new platforms. Netflix, the popular streaming service, has stated that more than half of all its views tends to be for TV shows. But what ITV would really like to develop is its own next big format show where it owns the rights to sell to broadcasters around the world. Its current biggest shows - Britain's Got Talent and X Factor - are made by independent production houses. Its biggest and most recent homegrown success stories include Dancing on Ice and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. Last year ITV hired X Factor producer Siobhan Greene in an effort to rejuvenate its entertainment output. Ms Greene worked with music and TV mogul Simon Cowell on the creation, commissioning and execution of both X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. If the broadcaster can come up with a new format show with strong international appeal, this could prove just as powerful a boost to its content revenues as its recent stream of acquisitions.