ITV Enjoys A Well-Deserved Profit Result!
Commercial broadcasting giant ITV has almost tripled its pre-tax profits last year to £321 million ($523 million) due to a surge in ad revenue – Variety reports!
Revenues have increased by 10% to £2.06 billion ($3.3 billion) as a result of a 16% hike in ad revenues on the back of TV shows such as ‘The X Factor‘ and costume drama ‘Downton Abbey‘.
Chairman Archie Norman remains cautiously optimistic, despite looking forward to the fruition of his five-year transformation plan. He is under no illusions that extra work will need to be done on the production and online side of the business.
It wasn’t all good news, as ITV‘s in-house production company ITV Studios struggled as revenues fell 12.5% to £293 million ($477 million) and earnings dropped 11% to £81 million ($132 million). Norman has neither confirmed nor denied reports which suggest the group is looking at a potential acqusition of All3Media.
Norman has assured that the broadcaster will be investing projects and pilot shows, and adds:
“It will be a long haul, but over the past 12 months ITV Studios produced about 53% of ITV’s output compared with about 50% the previous year.”
ITV currently produces content in seven countries, and hopes to increase this to 17 by 2015.
