ITV PLC has announced that it will institute a further £20 million of net cost savings in 2024. £10 million will be a reduction in content costs and the other £10 million will come from the early delivery of non-content savings planned for 2025.
In the broadcaster’s Q3 trading update, chief exec, Carolyn McCall said that “our cost saving programme is progressing well and today we are announcing further cost savings in addition to the previously announced £40 million of incremental cost savings through restructuring, improved efficiency and simplifying ways of working. Coupled with our strategic delivery and revenue outlook, this continues to give us the confidence that we will deliver an increase in group profit this year.”
ITV said that group revenues were at £2,741 million, down 8% for the nine months to 30 September 2024 due to a combination of the impact of the 2023 US actors’ and writers’ strikes and the uncertainty in the lead up to the UK budget.
ITV Studios’ revenue performance for the nine months to 30 September 2024 was down 20% at £1,217 million (2023: £1,516 million) “impacted by the expected phasing of production deliveries which are heavily weighted to Q4 and the impact from both the 2023 US writers’ and actors’ strikes (which will delay around £80 million of revenue from 2024 to 2025) and lower demand from free-to-air broadcasters in Europe in the short term.”
ITV said that ITV Studios is on track to deliver an “unusually high number of productions in Q4 2024” including, in the US: The Better Sister for Amazon Prime Video and Hell’s Kitchen for Fox; in the UK: Shetland for the BBC, Grace S5 for ITV, Destination X for the BBC and NBC, and The Forsytes for PBS Masterpiece; and Internationally: Petra for Sky Italia and Gladiators for TF1
Carolyn McCall said: “ITV’s good strategic progress has continued in the first nine months of 2024 driven by strong execution and industry leading creativity.
“ITV Studios is performing well despite the expected impact of both the writer’s strike and a softer market from free-to-air broadcasters. ITV Studios has had an excellent start to Q4, in line with expectations, which will ensure it achieves record profits in 2024. Studios has great creative and commercial momentum as demonstrated in the last few weeks with shows including Rivals for Disney+ and Ludwig for the BBC and is on track to deliver good revenue growth in 2025 and 2026.
“ITVX continued its strong performance, delivering double-digit growth in streaming hours and digital revenues. ITV maintained its unique position in linear television through the quality and breadth of its schedule, and ITV1 was voted Channel of the Year at the Edinburgh TV Awards.”
Staff Reporter
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