9 December 2021

ITV plc: ITV Studios Investor seminar - A scaled player in global content

ITV outlines ambitions over the next five years to 2026 for ITV Studios aligned with key market growth drivers

●    Expect total revenues to recover to 2019 levels in 2022. Thereafter we expect total organic revenues to grow by at least 5% on average per annum, which is ahead of the forecasted growth for the global content market

●    Margin over the medium term will be 13 to 15% reflecting the changing mix of our revenues as we grow our scripted business and our revenues from streamers

●    Double the number of high end scripted hours and increase the proportion of revenues from streamers to around 25%*

●    Expand the number of global formats produced in three or more countries to 20*

*see table below for 2021 expected outcomes

ITV will today be holding an Investor Seminar on ITV Studios to provide a deeper dive into its global production and distribution business. It will be hosted by Carolyn McCall, CEO, and Julian Bellamy, MD of ITV Studios, and will include presentations from ITV Studios' management team.

It will be streamed on ITV's corporate website - www.itvplc.com at 3pm GMT. There will be an opportunity at the end for analysts and investors to ask questions via a conference call facility. Details for which can be found below.

Carolyn McCall, ITV CEO said

"The vision we set out for ITV Studios in 2018 was to strengthen and grow our UK and international production business into a high quality and diversified global business.  We have made very significant progress and we are now a key scaled player in the global content market, diversified by genre, geography and customer base and we are in a position of strength to take advantage of the growing demand for quality content.

"Today we are announcing an evolved set of KPIs to better demonstrate the progress we are making and our ambitions for the future. We are operating in a growth market and strategically pivoting our business to align with the key drivers of that growth. Therefore, we are confident that we will grow ahead of the global content market, with our total Studios revenues growing by at least 5% on average per annum over the medium term having recovered to 2019 levels in 2022. This will be at a margin of 13 to 15% over the medium term, reflecting the changing mix of our revenues as we grow our scripted business and our revenues from streamers. Over the next five years we expect to double our number of high end scripted hours to 400 and increase our proportion of revenues from streamers to around 25%, which is broadly in line with the global content market. In addition we will continue to expand our global formats business aided by a world class commercial arm."

 Julian Bellamy, MD ITV Studios said

"Today we are the number one commercial producer in the UK, one of the largest independent producers of unscripted content in the US and one of the biggest global producer/distributors in the world. We have 60 production labels across 13 countries, and we have one of the largest, broadest and deepest catalogues in the world with over 90,000 hours of content.

"Our priorities remain to: grow our scripted business; expand our global formats business;

diversify our customer base; and strengthen our creative talent. Attracting and retaining the very best talent underpins our ability to deliver against our priorities for which we have a strong track record. Since 2015 we have doubled our proportion of scripted revenues from 15% to around 30%; we now have over 285 formats globally, up from around 165 in 2015; and we have grown our revenues from streamers as we have tilted our business towards the strong growth in demand from that part of the market. By the end of this year revenue from streamers will account for around 14% of our total revenues, up from virtually zero in 2015.

"We are competing in a competitive global marketplace but we are well placed due to: our global footprint in the top TV content markets in the world; our relationships with all the major buyers globally; our strong creative culture helping us attract and retain some of the best talent in the industry; our rich catalogue enabling us to provide content at scale to our international client base; our integrated creator, producer, distributor model meaning we can participate in all areas of the TV content value chain; and finally our relationship with ITV Media & Entertainment in the UK giving us a major strategic advantage with our unique insight into its content needs and a platform to launch new shows which we can then sell around the world."

ITV Studios KPIs and ambitions

Webcast and Q&A details:

The webcast will be streamed today at 3pm GMT via the following link:

https://www.investis-live.com/itv/61963b6f7f7c390d008407e6/itvssp. You are now able to pre-register to join.

This will be followed by a live Q&A for investors and analysts. To ask a question, please use the following Conference Call details:

●    United Kingdom: 0800 640 6441

●    United Kingdom (Local): 020 3936 2999

●    All other locations: +44 203 936 2999

●    Participant access code: 783251 - Participants will be greeted by an operator who will register their details

For further enquiries please contact:

Investor Relations

Pippa Foulds                           +44 7778 031097

Faye Dipnarine                       +44 207157 6581

Media Relations

Paul Moore                             +44 7860 794444

Tessa Matchett                       +44 7712 077966

NOTES TO EDITORS

This announcement contains certain statements that are or may be forward-looking statements. Words such as "ambitions", "targets", "expects", "aim", "anticipate", "intend", or the negative of these terms and other similar expressions of future performance or results, and their negatives, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and assumptions regarding anticipated developments and other factors affecting ITV. Although ITV believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove to have been correct. By their nature forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events, and depend on circumstances, that will occur in the future. They are not historical facts, nor are they guarantees of future performance; actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to (i) the general economic, business, political, legal, regulatory and social conditions in the key markets in which the Group operates, including the duration and severity of COVID-19 impacts on ITV's colleagues, business, partners and customers, (ii) a significant event impacting ITV's liquidity or ability to operate and deliver effectively in any area of our business, (iii) significant change in regulation or legislation, (iv) a significant change in demand for global content, and v) a material change in the Group strategy to respond to these or any other factors.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and, except as required by applicable law or regulation, ITV undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether written or oral that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Nothing in this statement should be construed as a profit forecast.