ITV Studios on track for £100m 2014 revenue boost

The content arm of ITV is on course to grow revenues by £100 million (US$157.5 million) in 2014, the UK broadcaster said this morning.

The commercial channel operator reported results for the first nine months of the year, with ITV Studios revenues up 10% in the period.

ITV Studios reported revenue of £207 million in the third quarter. For the first nine months of the year it recorded revenues of £609 million versus £555 million a year earlier, and is on track to record annual revenues of £925 million.

ITV has been on a production company buying spree in recent years, with a notable focus on the US. It said today that revenues from the acquired companies were partly responsible for the overall revenue uptick alongside a return to organic growth “fuelled by the global demand for high-quality content”.

The broadcaster said it expects similar revenue growth at Studios next year, with the financial benefit of drama titles including Jekyll and Hyde, Home Fires and US offerings Texas Rising and Aquarius feeding through. It will also gain revenue from kids series Thunderbirds Are Go! and NBC’s US version of entertainment format Saturday Night Takeaway.

On the channels side ITV was also upbeat on prospects for 2015, noting it will have the benefit of new channels ITV Be and ITV Encore.

Investment bank Credit Suisse said ITV Studios performance and full-year and 2015 prospects were a standout feature in the wider ITV results.

“Studios’ revenue growth jumped to 29%, having lagged expectations in the first two quarters. Importantly, the company reiterated its guidance that revenues would grow by around £100 million on a constant currency basis in 2014; and gave new guidance that 2015 revenue growth would be “a similar amount to this year,” the bank noted.

ITV reported an 8% increase in overall revenues £1.8 billion and a 7% increase in broadcast and online revenues of $1.4 billion.

CEO Adam Crozier said: “Our broadcast business has performed strongly with advertising revenues up 6% in the first nine months. We expect to be up around 5% over the full year, well ahead of the UK television  advertising market and our best outperformance for five years.”

Credit Suisse said: “ITV’s Q3 trading update shows the company is exiting 2014 with good growth across all divisions.”

Crozier added: “Based on our performance to date we are confident that as we continue to execute our strategy we will deliver further growth across the business both creatively and commercially in the UK and internationally.”