First-Half Revenue Gains for ITV

For the first half of 2022, ITV’s revenues rose by 9 percent to £2 billion ($2.4 billion), with an adjusted profit before tax of £301 million ($365 million).

“ITV has recorded a strong performance across the business with both our Studios and Media & Entertainment divisions performing better in the first half than we expected at the beginning of the year,” said Chief Executive Carolyn McCall.

At ITV Studios, revenues were up 16 percent to £927 million ($1.1 billion). McCall highlighted the 82 percent gain in the division’s production of high-end scripted content, as well as the increasing contribution from streaming platforms, which now account for 19 percent of total revenues.

Media and entertainment revenues inched up 4 percent to £1.1 billion ($1.3 billion), with ad revenues up 5 percent and a 20 percent gain in digital ad revenues “driven by record levels of streaming on the ITV Hub, up 8 percent with 814 million streams in H1,” McCall noted.

“Despite the tough comparators of last summer, when the Euros and a rebounding economy drove record advertising revenues, TAR is expected to be broadly flat in the nine months to the end of September,” McCall said of the ad revenue forecast for the remainder of the year. “We are mindful of the macroeconomic uncertainty; however, we have for the first time ever in Q4 the football World Cup to look forward to. We are on track against all the new KPIs and targets we announced earlier this year as part of the second phase of our More Than TV Strategy, and we are very focused on successfully launching ITVX, our new free ad-funded streaming service, in Q4 this year.”