ITV Pre-Tax Profit Soars 30 Percent, CEO Rules Out Channel 5 Bid

LONDON: In announcing a strong set of 2013 results, Adam Crozier, the chief executive of ITV, has said that the company will not be among those bidding for Channel 5.

ITV revenues rose 9 percent in 2013, to £2.39 billion ($3.99 billion). The growth was driven by a 2 percent increase in ad revenues and a 20 leap in profits at ITV Studios. ITV reported pre-tax profits of £425 million ($726 million), and adjusted profits were up 27 percent while overall revenues gained 8 percent. Non-advertising revenues grew 17 percent. Broadcast and online revenue gained 3 percent.

Crozier said: "ITV is now demonstrably a much stronger company both operationally and financially. Over the last four years we’ve grown our revenues and delivered double digit profit growth every year, our adjusted earnings per share has increased six fold to 11.2p and our cash conversion has been consistently strong. While we’ve made good progress to date there is still much to do. We remain committed to our strategy for rebalancing the business, with growth increasingly coming from online, pay and interactive and from ITV Studios internationally.

"In 2014 we again expect all parts of the business to see further growth. In ITV Studios we anticipate good growth, primarily driven by the acquisitions we have made in the U.K. and internationally. In Broadcast we have started the year with the announcement of two new channels—ITV Encore and ITVBe—and we expect to see double digit growth from online, pay and interactive. The television advertising market continues to show signs of improvement, with ITV Family NAR expected to be up 5 percent to 6 percent over the four months to the end of April, and we expect to outperform our estimate of the television advertising market over the full year."