ITV has issued a trading update.
For the nine months ended 30 September 2021, total external revenue was up 28% year-on-year at £2.381 billion and up 8% compared with 2019.
In the core Media and Entertainment (M&E) business line, revenue was up 26% compared with same period of 2020 at £1.594 billion with total advertising revenue (TAR) up 30%. Of this, total advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) revenue was up 54%. with July up 68%, August up 24% and September up 16% compared with the same period in 2020. ITV’s total advertising revenue (TAR) for 2021 is expected to be the highest in ITV’s history. Q4 TAR is expected to be up between 11% and 13% against strong comparatives in 2020, with October up 17% and we forecast November to be up around 12% and December to be up between 5% and 10%.
Carolyn McCall, ITV Chief Executive, 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.”
