ITV Releases Q1 Results, Acquires Scandinavian Producer

LONDON, May 15: ITV plc, which today announced the acquisition of Scandinavian producer Silverback, has released its first quarter results, with group revenues up 3 percent to £492 million, led by gains in its global content division.

Broadcasting revenues at the company were down 2 percent to £409 million, while global content revenues gained 41 percent to £58 million and online revenues were up 13 percent to £9 million.

Michael Grade, the executive chairman of ITV, commented: “ITV has made further progress in 2008 and the turnaround plan, outlined in September 2007, remains on track. The forecast for the first half shows us outperforming the U.K. television advertising market—the first time this has happened since 2000. Across ITV as a whole we are sustaining operational momentum in all parts of the business.”

Grade noted that viewing share across the portfolio of ITV channels grew by 1.6 percent to 223.4 percent. Global content, meanwhile, was “driven by a strong performance in international production and we’ve secured major prime-time commissions and format sales to FOX, NBC and CBS in the U.S. Online, ITV is making progress with its strategy of maximizing exploitation of programming, attracting more users online and, increasingly, engaging those users in video content. Video views across ITV sites have increased 76 percent since the start of the year to reach 9.9 million last month.”

The company also announced today the acquisition of Silverback, in its efforts to boost its global content division, where it is aiming to double revenues by 2012. ITV will pay a cash consideration of £5.2 million. A further payment of a maximum of £8.8 million is contingent on profit performance over a three-year period.

The deal gives ITV the exclusive international rights (outside the Nordic territories) to all content, formats and series developed by Silverback. Silverback’s sales team also joins ITV with immediate effect. Silverback, meanwhile, acquires the right to produce or sell ITV-owned formats in the Nordic territories. The intention is that Silverback will expand its production capabilities beyond Sweden into other Scandinavian countries.

Silverback was founded as Talpa Scandinavia and spun off from John de Mol’s Talpa Media Holding after a management buy-out in May 2007.

—By Mansha Daswani