ITV offsets ad decline with production business boost
The growth of ITV’s production business, plus an increase in its online and interactive revenues helped it overcome dip in ad revenues in the first half of the year.
The broadcaster reported total revenues of £1.31bn for the six months to 30 June, up 2 per cent year on year.
The continued growth of ITV Studios, whose revenues were up 11 per cent year on year to £395m, and its online and interactive divisions, posted a 19 per cent increase to £56m.
The gains offset a 3 per cent dip in advertising revenue for the period, which ITV blamed on “tough comparatives in the second quarter” when the European Championships were on.
Adam Crozier, ITV chief executive, says: “We’re making good progress with our strategy of growing and rebalancing the business as we build new revenue streams and improve margins.”
Crozier also forecast that ad revenues for the current quarter were expected to be largely flat – when compared to last year when it suffered from the bulk of TV audiences being focused on the Olympics, which were broadcast on BBC.
He said: “In spite of monthly volatility we expect ITV Family NAR [advertising revenues] to be broadly flat for the nine months to the end of September with Q3 up 9 per cent.”
ITV’s statement also went on to state that it planned to improve its paid-for content and multi-channel offering with more direct-to-consumer pay offerings on ITV Player, as well as with third-party platforms.
“We expect both ITV Studios and Online, Pay & Interactive to deliver double digit revenue growth for the year to as a whole as we continue to rebalance and strengthen ITV,” added Crozier.
