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The U.K. TV giant, led by CEO Carolyn McCall, reported its latest results.
By Georg Szalai
Global Business Editor
U.K. TV giant ITV, led by CEO Carolyn McCall, is planning 35 million ($46 million) in “temporary” cost savings amid “softer” advertising demand in the fourth quarter. The news came Thursday as the company reported latest revenue for its ITV Studios production arm and total advertising revenue.
The company had previously forecast that its total ad revenue would come in “marginally down” in the third quarter, “compared to the same period in 2024, reflecting the tough comparative from the final knockout matches of the Men’s Euros in July 2024.” However, the firm had also predicted continued “strong growth in digital advertising revenues.”
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ITV highlighted on Thursday: “The economic outlook in the U.K. remains uncertain, with widespread caution being exercised across business sectors ahead of the budget in November. This is impacting demand for advertising throughout the industry in the fourth quarter, with ITV total advertising revenue (TAR) expected to be down around 9% in the quarter.”
It continued: “In response to this current reduction in advertising demand, we have identified £35 million of additional temporary savings in Media & Entertainment (M&E) in Q4. These savings align our M&E cost base – particularly content and discretionary spend – with the softer advertising demand we are seeing in Q4 and will largely offset the expected reduction in TAR.”
ITV Studios had recorded a revenue increase of 3 percent for the first six months of 2025. The production arm, which has been a much-rumored takeover target for various possible bidders in the industry, had back then also said that “we remain on track to deliver our target of total organic revenue growth of 5 percent on average per annum from 2021 to 2026 – ahead of the market.” But it had emphasized that 2025 results would be weighed more towards the second half of the year.
The company’s streaming service ITVX continued to perform strongly with growth in both streaming hours and digital ad revenue in the nine months to Sept. 30.
In July, ITV unveiled an additional £15 million ($20 million) in permanent non-content cost savings, taking the total group permanent non-content savings in 2025 to £45 million ($61 million). “We expect our total content spend to be around £1.23 billion ($1.67 billion) in 2025, compared to the £1.25 billion ($1.70 billion) previously indicated, as we continue to optimize our content spend to best reflect viewer dynamics,” the TV giant said back then. “While the economic environment remains uncertain, we now expect a better outturn for the full year 2025, driven by these cost efficiencies.”
CFO Chris Kennedy in the mid-year earnings call cited technology and process efficiencies as drivers of the latest set of cost reductions. “Everyone is really focused on … rebalancing the cost base” to ensure continued business success, he said.
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