England’s Euros bid boosts ITV revenues
DEMAND from advertisers for slots during the summer’s Euros helped offset a revenue fall at ITV’s production arm.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall said yesterday for the first three months of the year total external revenues fell by 6% to £727million as studios business income dropped 16% to £382million.
The Hollywood writers and actors strike last year delayed deal income while programming demand from freeto-air broadcasters in Europe is weak with an uncertain advertising market.
However Dame Carolyn said ITV is on track to meet its full-year targets and she noted that in the first quarter its advertising revenues rose 3% to £432million.
With “good momentum” before the June 14 kick-off – England play Serbia two days later – the broadcaster expects a 12% ad income rise in the second quarter. Dame Carolyn also said its revamped ITVX streaming service had a strong start to the year and its cost-cutting efforts were on schedule, with savings of £40million expected this year.
She added that ITV Studios’ second half will be a lot stronger, when it delivers Hell’s Kitchen for Fox, crime drama A.C.A.B for Netflix, The Better Sister and Lazarus for Amazon Prime Video, Showtrial for the BBC, The Voice in Germany plus Love Island.
Dame Carolyn went on: “We have a strong pipeline of programmes, good demand for our quality content as we increasingly diversify our customer base towards streamers and the phasing of deliveries is heavily weighted to the second half. Overall, we expect to continue to make good strategic progress.”
Adam Vettese, analyst at eToro, said after revenue falls last year and in the first quarter, she will be under pressure for improved performances: “At what point does [ITV] need to actually deliver in order for investors to keep the faith?”