ITV audience down 8%
May 14, 2014
ITV is anticipating a World Cup boost after revealing that its share of TV viewing has fallen by 8 per cent so far this year.
The UK commercial broadcaster said total revenue was up 2 per cent to £585 million in Q1 2014 whilst broadcast and online revenues were up 3 per cent to £480 million, and predicted that the football World Cup in Brazil could help lift advertising revenues by as much as 13 per cent later this year.
But ITV chief executive Adam Crozier admitted that its network of channels had not performed as well as expected so far this year.
Crozier commented: “We continue to make progress with our strategy of growing and rebalancing the business in the UK and internationally.”
“Broadcast & Online started the year well, helped by another strong performance in Online, Pay & Interactive and by the ongoing improvement in the UK advertising market, with most sectors showing good growth.”
“While ITV Family share of viewing has been lower than expected so far this year we have confidence in our strong schedule to come, including the football World Cup in June. ITV Encore – our first pay channel – is on track to launch in June, followed later in the year by ITVBe, our first new free-to-air Channel in almost a decade.”
“As always, Studios revenues are impacted by phasing of programme deliveries, however given the level of forward visibility we have in our Studios business, we are confident of delivering good revenue growth over the full year driven by the acquisitions we have made.”
“Just last week we made the significant acquisition of Leftfield Entertainment, a fast growing US production company. The acquisition makes ITV Studios the largest independent unscripted producer in the US and is a major step forward in our strategy of building an international content business. We are also investing in the organic growth of our international scripted business, which will benefit our growth in future years.”
“Looking ahead, our Q2 advertising revenue is forecast to be up 12-13 per cent and we expect to outperform the TV ad market in H1 and over the full year.”
Additioanl Q1 highlights include:
- Broadcast & Online revenues up 3 per cent at £480 million (2013: £465 million) driven by 2 per cent growth in NAR as expected and 14 per cent increase in Online, Pay & Interactive
- ITV Studios set to deliver good revenue growth over the full year, although the phasing of programme delivery in 2014 means Q1 is down 4 per cent
- Completed the acquisition of 80 per cent of Leftfield, the fast growing US independent producer, as we continue to build our international content business
- On track to deliver £10 million cost savings over the full year
- ITV Family NAR is forecast to be ahead of the market, up 7 per cent over H1, with initial indications that July will be positive