ITV revenue dips 20 per cent as pandemic takes control

A UK broadcaster has announced that its revenue has dipped by nearly 20 per cent in the past nine months.

ITV, which is headquartered in London, reported today that its studios’ revenue was down by 19 per cent, dropping to £1,860m from last year’s £2,209m.

It said that its share of viewing figures also decreased by 4 per cent, which it attributed to the volume of the BBC’s news output during the pandemic.

However, the company predicted that its advertising revenue for the full year would beat 2019 by around 6 per cent.

Throughout the pandemic, the studio has also been continuing work to build a new media and entertainment division.

Carolyn McCall, ITV’s chief executive, commented: “We are seeing encouraging signs in both our divisions.

“Advertising trends are improving with Q4 forecast to be slightly up year on year and 85 per cent of our productions in the UK and internationally that were paused as a result of COVID-19 are back in production or have been delivered.

“However, Covid restrictions and further national lockdowns have added production costs and are making it challenging to bring ITV Studios productions back to full capacity.

“We remain focused on executing our More Than TV strategy as we accelerate our digital transformation.

“We are restructuring the broadcast business to create a new media and entertainment division to better reflect and serve changing viewing habits.

“The restructure will also drive improvements in efficiency and reduce costs.

“Planet V has reached another milestone allowing media agencies to self-serve advertising campaigns.

“We have further improved the design and functionality of the Hub which now has 32m registered users; and BritBox is on track, with a very successful launch for Spitting Image - BritBox’s first original commission.

“Looking ahead we will continue to monitor our performance very carefully against a wide range of scenarios given the ongoing uncertainty. We continue to focus on cash and costs and our balance sheet remains robust with good access to liquidity.”