U.K. TV giant ITV, led by CEO Carolyn McCall, reported a 20 percent drop in revenue for its ITV Studios production arm on Thursday, “impacted by the phasing of deliveries and the 2023 U.S. writers’ and actors’ strike.”
However, ITV Studios is on track to deliver record adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortization for the full year 2024, “reflecting efficiency gains and a significant fourth-quarter delivery schedule.” ITV Studios revenue is expected to decline in the mid-single digit percent range over the full year though. The company said that will be “only marginally down year-on-year (when) excluding the impact of the U.S. actors’ and writers’ strikes.”
Meanwhile, total advertising revenue was flat in the third quarter, as projected by the company.
And streaming service ITVX “continued to perform strongly with 14 percent growth in streaming hours and 15 percent growth in digital advertising revenue” in the nine months to Sept. 30.”
Full-year 2024 total advertising revenue is expected to be up around 2.5 percent, “with the fourth quarter expected to be down around 6-7 percent against the 2023 Rugby World Cup,” ITV said. “In addition, fourth-quarter advertising bookings were impacted by the uncertainty in the lead-up to the U.K. budget,” recently presented by the new Labour Party government.
ITV also provided an update on its cost reduction initiatives, unveiling it would reach an additional £20 million ($26 million) of net cost savings in 2024, “£10 million ($13 million) of which is a reduction in content costs and £10 million ($13 million) of which is the early delivery of non-content savings (originally) planned for 2025.” That and overall trends continue “to give us the confidence that we will deliver an increase in group profit this year,” the firm said.
“ITV’s good strategic progress has continued in the first nine months of 2024 driven by strong execution and industry-leading creativity,” said McCall. “ITV Studios is performing well despite the expected impact of both the writer’s strike and a softer market from free-to-air broadcasters.”
She added: “Studios has great creative and commercial momentum as demonstrated in the last few weeks with shows including Rivals for Disney+ and Ludwig for the BBC and is on track to deliver good revenue growth in 2025 and 2026.”
ITV Studios is on track to deliver “an unusually high number of productions” in the current fourth quarter, the CEO concluded. It is expected to include, in the U.S., The Better Sister for Amazon Prime Video and Hell’s Kitchen for Fox. Other shows include Shetland for the BBC, Destination X for the BBC and NBC, and The Forsytes for PBS Masterpiece.
ITV revenue for the first nine months of 2024 was down 8 percent, “with growth in total advertising revenue offset by the decline in ITV Studios revenue.”