ITV sees online, pay and interactive revenue top £100 million

UK commercial broadcaster ITV recorded a pre-tax profit of £348 million (€404 million), up 6% year-on-year, boosted by a strong performance from its online, pay and interactive activities and from production arm ITV Studios.

ITV posted revenue of £2.19 billion, up 3% compared with 2011. The TV broadcasting unit grew slightly despite a 3% in overall family viewing share, which CEO Adam Crozier attributed to one-off events on other channels such as the London Olympics on the BBC and claimed was unlikely to impact ad performance this year.

“In 2012 we achieved double digit earnings growth for the third year running, in a broadly flat advertising market. We now have non-advertising revenues of more than £1 billion, an increase of £114 million or 12% year on year, fuelled by a strong performance in ITV Studios and our online, pay and interactive business,” said Crozier. “Our broadcast and online business is robust and growing, with profits up 9% to £413 million, and our audience is in high demand from advertisers. Although ITV family Share of viewing fell by 3% due to the unprecedented number of major one-off events, we do not expect it to impact our ad performance in 2013 and the advertising deals we have secured support this view.”

Crozier said that ITV was seeing positive returns from its investment in online and pay TV activities. Online, pay and interactive revenue was up 26% to £102 million.

“We’re investing in online, pay and interactive, which are now a material and rapidly growing part of ITV with revenues increasing by 26% to £102 million – and more than doubling over the last three years. We’re positioning ourselves to take advantage of the opportunities arising from the increasing number of platforms needing high quality content and from changes in consumer behaviour, in particular the surge in mobile viewing,” he said.

Production arm ITV Studios’ earnings also topped £100 million for the first time in its history last year, its latest financial results have revealed.

The production and distribution arm of the UK broadcaster ITV, ITV Studios, grew its EBITA profit 29% year-on-year, taking the total to £107 million, according to ITV’s financial results for the year to December 31, 2012. ITVS also saw revenue grow by £100 million for the first time, up 16% to £712.