Hey folks, check this out! The Rugby World Cup has been a massive hit for ITV, drawing in a huge crowd of viewers. But, hold on, the advertising game is still a tough nut to crack. In fact, ITV is expecting an 8% dip in the ad market for the whole year.
In the nine months leading up to September, ITV raked in £2.97 billion in revenue, with digital and the studio arm making gains to offset the ad declines. However, the aftermath of the Philip Schofield scandal is still lingering. You know, he left This Morning after confessing to an affair with a younger colleague that he hadn’t told ITV about.
The big boss, Dame Carolyn McCall, is feeling the heat over how much she knew about the antics of ITV’s top stars. She’s even ordered an external review of how the company handled the Schofield situation, and we might get the lowdown on that by the end of the year.
The Rugby World Cup really pulled in a bunch of male ABC1s, which is a big deal for TV advertisers. But, even with that, the ad market is still a tough cookie, and ITV’s looking to make some cuts to keep up.
They’re also ramping up their streaming service, ITVX, and they’re expecting it to bring in a whopping £750 million in revenue by 2026. But in the short term, the global content market is taking a hit due to lower demand from free-to-air broadcasters, and there’s also the US writers’ and actors’ strike to contend with.
McCall has been at the helm since January 2018, and there’s no sign of her jumping ship. Fun fact: she spent 23 years at The Guardian and then 8 years at easyJet.
ITV shares took a bit of a tumble, dropping 4p to 61p, which puts its value at £2.5 billion.