ITV online service is one to watch with 20 per cent revenue growth

A British broadcaster has reported that its online revenue has grown by more than a fifth in the past year.

ITV, which has its headquarters in London, announced today that its online revenue was up by 21 per cent from 2018 amid a “rapidly changing” market.

It said that the amount of content watched online had jumped 13 per cent from 447 million hours in 2018 to 506 million hours last year.

This follows the launch of ITV’s Britbox online viewing service, which joins the existing ITV Hub.

The company said that the trend had continued into early 2020, with “very strong” online viewing up 89 per cent, which it attributes to shows The Masked Singer and Love Island.

It also reported that the company’s overall revenue for the year was up 3 per cent from £3,211m to £3,308m – an increase of £97m.

ITV’s chief executive, Caroline McCall, commented: “ITV delivered a good performance in 2019 in spite of the uncertain economic and political environment.

“Full year results were ahead of expectations and we made good progress in executing our strategy to build a digitally led media and entertainment company.

“We are growing our stable margin studios business, transforming broadcast and expanding our direct to consumer business. The investments in our strategic priorities are delivering.

“We are strengthening our creative talent in ITV Studios; accelerating the growth of ITV Hub; rolling out Planet V, our addressable advertising platform; strengthening our data and tech capabilities; and we successfully launched BritBox UK.

“We are very focused on building a stronger, more diversified and structurally sound business.

“The media market is changing rapidly and our strategy continues to evolve to position ITV to take advantage of the opportunities in advertising video on demand (AVOD) and streaming, while mitigating the effect of competition for viewing.”