ITV: Writers’ strike and ad slowdown continues to drag on revenue
ITV has reported a significant fall in revenue as the effects of the writer’s strike and a difficult advertising market hurt the broadcaster.
The group said total revenue in the first quarter fell seven per cent to £887m.
The strikes will “delay around £80m of revenue from 2024 to 2025”, the company added.
However, ITV’s chief executive, Carolyn McCall, said total revenue would be “broadly flat” over the full year, partly due to an uptick in ad revenue.
The company added that it expected ad revenue, which accounts for around half of ITV’s total income, to rise to 12 per cent next quarter. That would help offset a 16 per cent decline in revenue from its production arm, ITV Studios, in the first quarter. Production has been most impacted by the writers’ strike.
Advertising takings rose by three per cent overall, although free-to-air broadcasters in Europe have been “holding back spend until they see more certainty in the advertising market”, the company said.
It added that the Euros, which will be held in June, have been a boost for ad revenues.
ITV added that “the phasing of deliveries” has affected first-quarter revenues; they expect streaming hours to rise in the second half of the year as popular shows like Love Island and Ludwig head on to the channel.
ITVX – ITV’s streaming service – performed well over the quarter, with streaming hours up 16 per cent to 449m and digital revenue up by 11 per cent to £118m.
Net debt at the company fell to £272m from £553m at the end of December.
McCall said: “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 of the year, including Hells Kitchen US, The Better Sister, A.C.A.B, Showtrial and Ludwig.”
“ITVX continued to build on its strong first year and delivered double-digit growth in both digital viewing and digital advertising revenues in Q1 and we expect continued strong growth in both throughout the year.”
“Our group cost savings programmes are on course to deliver £40mn of savings this year as previously guided. Overall we expect to continue to make good strategic progress and we remain on track to achieve our targets for 2026.”