ITV Outlines New Vision to Be “More Than TV”

ITV Chief Executive Carolyn McCall set out three key areas that the broadcaster will be focusing on in the future, including creating a scaled direct-to-consumer business, as it aims to be “more than TV.”

In announcing its half-year results, ITV emphasized that it has been undertaking a “strategic refresh” over the last few months to help highlight the opportunities for ITV and also the challenges it will need to address.

“This is very much a refresh, not a reboot, as ITV is a strong business, no longer solely reliant on U.K. advertising,” the report said. “However, the market is clearly changing and to reflect this we have developed a clear vision and initiatives to drive growth to ensure ITV remains a structurally sound business. We have developed our new vision ‘More than TV’ to build upon ITV’s unique and winning combination of creativity and commercial strength.”

Looking ahead, the plan is to focus on three key areas—strengthening the integrated producer broadcaster, growing U.K. and global production, and creating a scaled direct-to-consumer business.

In 2019, ITV plans to invest £40 million ($52.6 million) across the business in the new strategy, and over the course of the three years will invest a total of £60 million ($79 million).

In its interim results for the six months to June 30, ITV reported total revenue of £1.85 billion ($2.4 billion), up 8 percent compared with the end of the first half of 2017. External revenue of £1.59 billion ($2.1 billion) was up 8 percent annually, and non-advertising revenues rose 14 percent on a year-on-year basis to £958 million ($1.26 billion). ITV’s total advertising revenue was up 2 percent.