ITV Profit Slips Amid Weakened Ad Market

Group external revenues for ITV plc in the first half of the year slipped by 2 percent to £1.64 billion, with gains at ITV Studios helping to offset a decline in advertising revenues.

For the first half, ITV Studios reported revenues of £1 billion, an 8 percent gain on the same period last year, while media and entertainment (M&E) revenues dropped by 9 percent to £964 million. Ad revenues were down 11 percent, even as digital ad revenues grew by 24 percent. Group adjusted EBITA fell by 52 percent to £153 million, with adjusted profit before tax down 61 percent to £118 million.

“The continued momentum behind ITV’s strategic transformation delivered strong growth in studios and digital revenues in the first half of the year, largely offsetting the expected weakness in the U.K. advertising market,” said Carolyn McCall, chief executive. “We remain on track to achieve all our KPI targets, which gives us confidence we will deliver at least £750 million of digital revenue by 2026. As we said at the full-year results in March, 2023 is the year of peak net investment in our streaming business and we expect profit to grow from here.”