ITV has released its trading update for the 9 months to 30 September 2021.

The update showed that total external revenue was up 28% at £2,381 million (2020: £1,860 million) and up 8% compared to 2019. Total ITV Studios revenue was up 32% at £1,193 million (2020: £905million) and up 6% compared to 2019. ITV total viewing however was down 5%, but, says ITV, this is set “against a tough comparative in 2020 which was driven by the rise in viewing due to the lockdown.”

Chief exec Carolyn McCall flagged the delivery of a new and returning programmes and formats in the UK and internationally including Vigil for BBC One, Physical for Apple TV+, The Long Call and Endeavour for ITV, Ten Year Old Tom for HBO Max, Snowpiercer season 2 for Netflix and Love Island in the UK for ITV and in the US for CBS.

McCall said: “By any standards ITV has had an outstanding nine months. Both our Studios and Media & Entertainment (M&E) businesses have performed very strongly. Revenue from each business over the nine months is up both on last year and on 2019. This drove total external revenue up 28% compared to 2020 and 8% higher than 2019.

“We are becoming an increasingly scaled digital business. Our online viewing was up 39% in the nine months which, together with the roll out of Planet V, helped our video on demand advertising (AVOD) revenue to climb 54%. Our monthly active users (MAUs) now stand at 9.6 million, a 22% increase year on year reflecting the focus on our AVOD strategy.

“With the combination of Broadcast and ITV Hub’s mass simultaneous reach, our brand safe addressable advertising product and the strong economy, 2021 looks set to have the highest advertising revenue in ITV’s history, despite the lockdown in Q1.

“ITV Studios continues to attract and support brilliant creative talent delivering significant growth in the UK and internationally. It has produced the biggest dramas of the year so far on both the BBC and ITV and revenue from streamers globally is growing very strongly. Like the
rest of our business, ITV Studios is embracing new digital processes with more of our productions being managed remotely, utilising tools such as cloud-based editing.

“Today’s results further illustrate that ITV has successfully completed the first phase of its More Than TV strategy and is accelerating the second phase of digital transformation as we evolve our products, user experiences and ways of working.”

Jon Creamer

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