ITV
U.K. broadcaster ITV’s quarterly external revenues have soared 18% to £834 million ($1.03 billion), up from £709 million ($872 million) in 2021.
In a trading update for the three months to March 31, 2022, the broadcaster also revealed that total ITV Studios revenue was up 23% at £458 million (2021: £373 million); media and entertainment revenue was up 13% at £545 million (2021: £483 million); with total advertising revenue up 16%; and digital revenues up by 24%.
For ITV Studios, the international production and distribution arm of ITV, revenues from streaming platforms continued to grow with development deals or commissions with most of the major platforms including “Inganno” and “One Piece” for Netflix, “Love Island USA” for Peacock and a Benjamin Franklin drama for AppleTV+. Unscripted programs expected to be delivered this year include “Hell’s Kitchen USA,” “The Chase USA,” as well as “Love Island” in the U.K., U.S., Australia, Netherlands, Spain and Germany.
The company said that its scripted division is in good health with programs like Snowpiercer (U.S.), “The Outlaws” (U.K.), “The Suspect” (U.K.), “Django” (Italy) and “Summertime” (Italy). Programs delivered in the first quarter of 2022 include “Holding,” “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans,” “Noughts and Crosses” season 2, “Murder in Provence” and “Physical” season 2.
Carolyn McCall, ITV chief executive, said: “We are focused on the three core drivers of value for ITV. We are growing Studios with a strong quarter and an exciting pipeline of scripted and unscripted programs as we further diversify the business by genre, by geography and by customer and grow ahead of the market. In media and entertainment, we maintained the strength of our linear business where we secured 93% of the largest commercial audiences. And we are making good progress in our goal to supercharge streaming by increasing our hours of content by 50% in the quarter to 6,000 hours and making available the majority of scripted programs in full for streaming at the same time as the initial broadcast.”
“All of this provides a solid foundation for ITVX — our free, ad-funded streaming service — which is on track for launch in Q4 and we remain confident that we will deliver at least £750 million of digital revenue by 2026,” McCall added.
The U.K. government recently issued a “Broadcasting White Paper,” which, when implemented, will change the country’s media landscape.
“We welcome the government’s recognition in the Media White Paper of the huge value the Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) deliver to the U.K. and their determination to reform the legal and regulatory framework to ensure PSBs, including ITV, have prominence, inclusion and fair value for their content and therefore are able to continue to thrive in the future,” McCall said.
ITV’s reported net debt was £435 million and the broadcaster had total liquidity of £1.3 billion, comprising cash of £747 million (which includes £50 million of restricted cash) and committed undrawn facilities of £648 million.
Variety's Naman Ramachandran contributed to this post.
https://variety.com/2022/tv/global/itv-quarterly-revenues-2022-1235263811/
