ITV broadcaster Granada said it had cut 650 jobs in the past financial year - and 430 more would be axed.

Chief executive Steve Morrison said the reduction would bring staff numbers down to about 5,000.

The cuts are part of an effort to make savings of £60m a year by 2003, and came as Granada showed the global advertising slowdown hit profits during the last year.

Granada said advertising revenue was down 12 per cent at £1.76bn, while pre-tax profits - stripping out investment in digital media - slid to £175m for the year to September 30, from £270m the previous year.

Mr Morrison said: "We are focusing on our core business and have taken a number of steps to reduce our costs and further increase our efficiency.

"Significant cost savings have already been achieved and we are on track to deliver £60m of savings a year by 2003. We will emerge from the current advertising downturn leaner and more competitive."

Mr Morrison said advertising figures for the current quarter were "better than analysts predicted" and had showed an improvement over the previous quarter. However, he said it was too early to say if this was a trend.

Of the job cuts, a large number of those made came from integrating the TV assets of United News & Media, while others have been made by streamlining Granada's operations.