Romance and rugby stars lift ITV’s revenue

THE Rugby World Cup and hit reality show Love Island boosted third-quarter revenues at ITV.

A peak audience of 12.8m watched England lose to South Africa in the rugby final, with the team’s gripping run pulling in advertisers.

That saw sales during the quarter rise by 1pc compared with last year – a result at the top end of forecasts.

But the commercial broadcaster said its full-year takings would still be down by 2pc overall, despite the return of favourites such as I’m a Celebrity in the fourth quarter.

However boss Carolyn McCall said ITV Studios, the production arm also behind hits such as Victoria, Broadchurch and Poldark, was cushioning the impact of the advertising slump thanks to strong interest in its programmes.

demand is booming for foreign versions of its hugely popular dating show Love Island, while it is also making other productions such as Hell’s

Kitchen and Snowpiercer for networks in the US.

That is expected to put ITV Studios on course for a 5pc rise in full-year revenues, McCall added. The results are a shot in the arm as she continues a push to reduce dependence on advertising, which has dwindled over the past few years.

TV catch-up player ITV Hub and Britbox, a separate video streaming service that ITV launched with the BBC, Channel

4 and Channel 5 last week, also form a crucial part of McCall’s plan.

She said: ‘ITV’s overall performance for the first nine months of 2019 was as we expected, and although the economic environment continues to be uncertain, we are making good progress in executing our strategy. We remain focused on building a digitally led media and entertainment company to create a stronger, more diversified and structurally sound business.

‘We have a solid balance sheet which enables us to make the right investment decisions and deliver returns to shareholders.’

Revenues for the nine months to September 30 fell 2pc to £2.21bn. It held on to its 23.6pc share of family viewing, while raising its share of online viewing via the ITV Hub by 10pc.

ITV said it remained on track to cut costs by £20m in 2019.

It expects to hold its annual dividend at 8p per share. Shares rose yesterday by 1.7pc, or 2.35p, to 138.3p.