- Digital viewing up 12% for full year 2024
- Record profits at ITV Studios
- Digital advertising revenue up 15%
Shares in ITV (ITV) gained over 5% on Thursday (6 March) after the free-to-air broadcaster reported a strong full year 2024 performance led by its streaming hub ITVX.
Digital viewing was up 12% and digital advertising revenue was up 15% for the year ending 31 December driven by the robust performance of programmes such as the Euros, Love Island and Until I Kill You.
‘By the end of 2025, we will have recouped the cumulative investment in ITVX, much earlier than anticipated,’ the company added.
Other positive news included the delivery of £60 million permanent efficiencies in 2024, £10 million ahead of plan and the free-to-air broadcaster hopes to deliver a further £30 million of non-content savings in 2025.
ITV Studios also delivered record profits despite the one-off impact of the writers and actors strike in Hollywood and softer demand from free-to-air broadcasters.
Creative successes for ITV Studios included Mr Bates, the biggest drama in the UK in 2024; Fool Me Once - one of Netflix’s (NFLX:NASDAQ) most-watched shows.
Although ITV Studios and ITVX proved to be a success, group total revenue fell 3% to £4.1 billion for the group and external revenue was down 4% to £3.4 billion.
PROVING CRITICS WRONG
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said: ‘ITV continues to prove its critics wrong, delivering a solid set of results and being miles ahead with the pace of recouping investment in its streaming platform.
‘The Studios arm has been a shining light over the past year, with record profits and big hits with the public. It has two aims – make the type of shows that will get people watching ITV’s own channels and make productions that will be hits for third party platforms/broadcasters. It succeeded on both accounts in 2024.
‘The knockout performance means any bidder will have to dig deep to convince ITV’s board and shareholders to accept an offer for the Studios arm. Speculation is rife that All3Media owner RedBird IMI wants to buy the production business and ITV’s latest results have effectively pushed up the price that’s needed to get a deal over the line.
‘ITV is under pressure to do something to get its share price out of the doldrums. It might seem odd to sell the crown jewels, but the board runs the business in the best interests of shareholders and if the price is right, RedBird IMI might be told to come on down with its chequebook.’
DISCLAIMER: Financial services company AJ Bell referenced in this article owns Shares magazine. The author of this article (Sabuhi Gard) and the editor (Martin Gamble) own shares in AJ Bell.
