Studios, Digital Lift ITV Results

While linear advertising revenues were down at ITV plc, the company said its results for the first nine months were fairly stable at £2.97 billion ($3.6 billion) thanks to gains at ITV Studios and in digital.

“ITV continues to make good strategic progress despite the challenging macro environment, which is impacting the advertising market and also the demand for content from free-to-air broadcasters in the U.K. and internationally,” said Carolyn McCall, chief executive.

“Studios and M&E digital revenues both grew strongly in the nine months to the end of September, more than offsetting the expected decline in linear advertising, delivering total group revenue growth of 1 percent,” McCall continued. “ITV Studios grew faster than the market, with 9 percent revenue growth, driven by its position as a scaled and diversified global production business. ITVX had a successful nine months delivering 27 percent growth in total streaming hours which, in turn, helped deliver 23 percent growth in digital revenue. Growth in digital advertising revenues continues to outperform other broadcasters reflecting ITVX’s compelling viewer and advertising proposition. It is evident that our strategy of growing the studios and M&E digital business is helping ITV to offset the current headwinds, and we remain confident in delivering our 2026 targets, when we expect two-thirds of revenue to come from these growth drivers.”

ITV Studios revenues from January to September were up 9 percent to £1.52 billion ($1.9 billion). Media and entertainment revenues dropped by 7 percent to £1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) as a result of a 7 percent decline in total ad revenues. However, digital revenues were up 25 percent to £283 million ($347 million).

With the ad outlook remaining challenging for the remainder of the year–ITV is expecting total ad revenues to be down 8 percent in 2023—the company is reducing its content spend by £10 million to £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion).