ITV Posts Revenue Increase

LONDON: ITV has reported revenues that were up 4 percent in the first nine months of the year, with net advertising revenue for the group growing by 2 percent in the same period, driven by the broadcast of this year’s Rugby World Cup and hit shows such as The X Factor.

The total revenues for the nine months ended in September grew 4 percent to £1.515 billion. Revenues at the Studio division grew 9 percent to £224 million. For the third quarter, net ad revenue was up 1 percent.

However, ITV said it remains cautious on the outlook for 2012.

Adam Crozier, the CEO, said: “Our relentless focus on delivering the Transformation Plan is now impacting positively on our results. Despite difficult economic and market conditions our revenues are up 4 percent to £1,515 million in the first nine months of the year.

The continued management emphasis on cash generation and cost reduction has delivered further improvements to our financial position and we are on track to be net cash positive at year end. This is a substantial improvement given that our net debt stood at £612 million at the beginning of 2010.

The new ITV Studios management team is delivering ahead of expectations, fueled by our continued investment in revitalizing the creative pipeline, with particularly strong growth in our international business. So far this year ITVS has had 89 new commissions of which 40 are international, including Prime Suspect, which we have sold to 30 countries and Titanic, a major new drama for 2012 by Julian Fellowes, which has been sold to 57 countries.

Maximizing audience share in broadcast remains a key part of our strategy. Our on-screen performance has been strong with ITV Family share of viewing (SOV) year-to-date up 2 percent year on year to 23 percent. ITV1 SOV is broadly flat at 15.6 percent and our digital channels have grown strongly with ITV2 SOV up 8 per cent year on year, and ITV3 and ITV4 both up 10 per cent. Online, long-form video views are up by 62 percent in the first nine months of the year.

We are still in the early stages of our five year Transformation Plan which we are on track to deliver, and we remain optimistic about ITV’s prospects in the medium to long term.”