ITV hails Euro 2024 advertising boost

Broadcasting giant ITV has said the Euro 2024 football tournament helped boost half-year advertising revenues, but it revealed an ongoing hit from last year’s Hollywood strikes.

The group behind hit show Love Island reported underlying pre-tax profits jumping 51% higher to £178 million in the first half of 2024.

Total ad revenues surged 17% in its second quarter and 10% over the first half as a whole as ITV hailed a “very successful Euros”.

The group said this was offset by woes at its ITV Studios arm, which saw revenues fall 13% due to the knock-on effect of the 2023 lengthy US writers’ and actors’ strike which brought productions to a halt.

ITV’s total group revenues fell 3%, dragged lower by the production arm decline.

Shares in the group fell 5% on Thursday morning after the results.

The group cut its outlook for revenues in ITV Studios, saying they are now expected to fall by “low single digits”, having previously said they would be flat.

Despite this, it expects to deliver record profits at the division thanks to more profitable catalogue sales and cost-cutting.

ITV also announced on Thursday that ITV Studios has bought Sherlock and Douglas Is Cancelled production company Hartswood Films.

Cardiff-based Hartswood was set up in 1979 by Beryl Vertue and works with a raft of well-known producers, writers and actors, such as Mark Gatiss and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Overall, ITV said group-wide total ad revenues are expected to be broadly flat in the third quarter as it comes up against solid trading from a year earlier, when trading was boosted by the Rugby World Cup.

ITV chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall said the group is “confident” of delivering a group underlying earning this year after heavy investment in its ITVX streaming platform over 2023.

She hailed a 17% jump in digital ad revenues over the first half as these investments begin to pay off.

“This was driven by strong viewing across our broadcast channels and ITVX, with a very successful Euros, a year-on-year increase in viewing of Love Island and a slate of great dramas,” she said.

“We have strong momentum in improving efficiency and simplifying ways of working right across ITV and are on course to deliver the £40 million of incremental in-year savings in 2024 that were previously guided.”