ITV PLC on Wednesday posted sluggish revenue growth in the first nine months of the year as advertising sales fell, but said its ITVX streaming platform performed strongly.

Shares in ITV were down 6.2% at 61.52 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.

The London-based television broadcaster and content producer said total revenue in the nine months to September 30 amounted to £2.98 billion, a slight rise of 0.9% from £2.95 billion a year earlier.

In the ITV Studios production arm, revenue rose 9.3% on-year to £1.52 billion, though in Media & Entertainment, it fell 6.5% to £1.46 billion.

This was boosted by a ‘wide range of new and returning programmes and formats in the UK and internationally,’ ITV said, which includes shows like Fifteen Love, Love Island and World on Fire.

M&E includes ITVX, as well as ITV’s television networks.

Total digital revenues for ITVX were up 23% and total streaming hours were up 27% to the end of September, with monthly active users continuing to grow in line with ITV’s expectations.

Meanwhile, M&E’s outcome was hurt by a 7% decline in total advertising revenue.

ITV commented: ‘The advertising market remains challenging and over the full year 2023 we expect ITV TAR to be down around 8% versus 2022 TAR, which was the second highest in ITV’s history and included the positive impact of the FIFA World Cup.’

Looking ahead, the broadcaster said it expects to deliver around 3% growth in total Studios revenue for the full year, following 19% growth in 2022.

On an organic basis, ITV expects average growth over 2022 and 2023 to be ‘well ahead of our medium term target and the wider market.’

It also said it is on track to deliver £15 million in cost savings, as part of its £50 million cost saving target between 2023 and 2026.

Chief Executive Officer Carolyn McCall said: ‘ITV continues to make good strategic progress despite the challenging macro environment which is impacting the advertising market and also the demand for content from free-to-air broadcasters in the UK and internationally... It is evident that our strategy of growing the Studios and M&E digital business is helping ITV to offset the current headwinds, and we remain confident in delivering our 2026 targets, when we expect two-thirds of revenue to come from these growth drivers.’

Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.