UK broadcaster and production group ITV has reported its results for the six months ending June 30, 2021. The company has reported significant revenue growth across all divisions and detailed a surge in Britbox subscriptions internationally.
ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said: “Our H1 results demonstrate that ITV is emerging from the worst effects of the pandemic. We’ve continued to implement our key strategic priorities and have further strengthened the business. Total external revenue was up 27% driven by 26% growth in ITV Studios revenue and a 29% increase in total advertising revenue within which total video on demand advertising was up 55%.
“We are now a more flexible, more efficient and more digital business. We have successfully completed the first phase of our More Than TV strategy and look forward to building on this platform to accelerate our transformation to a digitally led media and entertainment company.
“We are optimistic about the future, despite the ongoing pandemic risk on our advertising and ITV Studios revenues. We know that the dividend is important to our shareholders and we intend to re-commence a progressive dividend policy based on a notional dividend of 5p per share which we expect to grow over time. The first dividend under the new policy would be a final dividend of 3.3p per share proposed at the full year results in respect of 2021.”
Total external revenue was up 27% at £1,548 million (30 June 2020: £1,218 million).
ITV Studios total revenue was up 26% at £798 million (30 June 2020: £632 million), with the substantial majority of programs back in production and also benefitting from a number of programmes and licences being delivered earlier than expected. This was up 5% on 20191. ITV Studios external revenue was up 31% at £523 million.
June 2021 delivered the largest advertising revenues for the month of June for ITV in its history, benefitting from the easing of restrictions and the Euros broadcasts.
Total advertising revenue for June and July 2021 is expected to be 16% higher than the same period in 2018 when ITV broadcast the Football World Cup and series 4 of Love Island.
BritBox UK continues to grow with around 555,000 subscriptions, up over 10%, and an exciting pipeline of original content in H2 and 2022 including Spitting Image 2, Magpie Murders, Crime and Wedding of the Century.
The company reported BritBox International is performing strongly in the US, Canada and Australia with two million total subscriptions, up around 18%. BritBox doesn’t detail the size of subscriptions in international markets, but it did comment: Subscriptions have grown strongly, and we now have two million BritBox subscriptions internationally in USA, Canada and Australia.
BritBox South Africa will launch in August and further rollout to other countries will follow.
Regarding the ITV Studios format business it commented:
We are very focused on developing, managing and exploiting our global formats to maximise IP revenues. We have a portfolio of world-class brands which we continue to protect and strengthen each year, including (number of countries the format has been sold to, to date, is included in brackets); The Voice (70+ countries), Love Island (21 countries), The Chase (17 countries), Beat The Chasers (5 countries), Let Love Rule (6 countries), I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! (13 countries) and Come Dine With Me (40+ countries).