UK network ITV has posted Q1 revenues down 7%, as its studios division felt the impact of last year’s Hollywood labor strikes.
The commercial broadcaster’s total revenue was £887M ($1.1B), compared with £952M in 2023, with a recovery in the ad market offset by a 16% dip at ITV Studios.
The Media and Entertainment unit that houses its main network was up 2% at £505M, according to a trading update this morning. Earnings weren’t broken out.
Total revenue at ITV Studios, which makes the likes of Love Island and Mr Bates Vs the Post Office were £382M, down on the £457M in the same period last year.
According to ITV, this was “due to the phasing of deliveries which are heavily weighted to H2 and the expected impact from both the 2023 U.S. writers and actors strikes and the weaker demand from free-to-air broadcasters in Europe who have been holding back spend until they see more certainty in the advertising market.”
Despite that, ITV Studios did deliver shows such as The Reluctant Traveller for Apple TV+, The Red King for UKTV’s Alibi, The Gathering for Channel 4 and I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! in Germany for RTL.
ITV is expecting Studios’ full year revenues to be broadly flat, with the writers and actors strikes offsetting growth elsewhere by delaying around £80M of sales until 2025, guidance it has previously provided. In the second half of the year, it will deliver Hells Kitchen for Fox, A.C.A.B for Netflix, The Better Sister and Lazarus for Prime Video, Ludwig and Showtrial for the BBC, Sentinelles for OCS and Canal+, Love Island in the UK, U.S. and Australia, and The Voice in Australia and Germany.
ITVX, the broadcaster’s streaming service, was its streaming hours up 16% to 449 million, with monthly active users growing in line with expectations. Overall, digital revenues were up 11% at £118M, with growth partially offset.
ITV remains the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster by some distance, with its shows accounting for 91% of the top 1,000 non-BBC titles. Net debt has also fallen significantly, down from £553M at the end of December to £272M on March 31.
ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said group cost savings were “on course to deliver £40M” in 2024, as previously predicted. “Overall we expect to continue to make good strategic progress and we remain on track to achieve our KPI targets for 2026,” she added.
