{"id":520187,"date":"2026-03-05T11:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520187\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T11:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:24:08","slug":"itv-in-sky-talks-reports-2025-studios-profit-drop-ad-revenue-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/520187\/","title":{"rendered":"ITV in Sky Talks, Reports 2025 Studios Profit Drop, Ad Revenue Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tU.K. TV giant\u00a0ITV<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday reported slightly lower earnings for its ITV Studios<\/a> production unit, due to a previously highlighted change in revenue mix, and a less pronounced than expected 5 percent advertising revenue decline for the full year 2025,\u00a0compared with 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company had estimated late last year that its full-year 2025 ad revenue would be down 6 percent, with a 9 percent decrease in the fourth quarter as the \u201ceconomic outlook in the U.K. remains uncertain, with widespread caution being exercised across business sectors ahead of the budget in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Thursday, ITV, led by CEO Carolyn McCall, said its total external revenue in the latest full year rose 1 percent, with total revenue unchanged, while adjusted EBITA dropped 1 percent amid \u201ctight cost management.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tITV has been in deal talks with Comcast\u2019s Sky<\/a>. The company said in November<\/a> that it was in discussions to sell its media and entertainment unit to Sky for \u00a31.6 billion. ITV\u2019s financial update on Thursday mentioned Sky this way: \u201cFollowing our announcement in November 2025, we remain in discussions with Sky regarding a possible sale of the M&E business. There can be no certainty as to whether a transaction will take place and an update will be made in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tITV Studios has over the past 36 hours become a renewed focus of deal chatter following a mega-merger between production giants Banijay<\/a> and All3Media<\/a>, owned by a joint investment partnership between\u00a0Gerry Cardinale\u2019s RedBird and IMI Media, led by RedBird operating partner and RedBird IMI CEO Jeff Zucker.\u00a0RedBird IMI had acquired\u00a0All3Media in 2024 for $1.45 billion.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a Wednesday conference call, Fran\u00e7ois Riahi<\/a>, the CEO of Banijay Group, the parent company of Banijay, was asked about the merged entity\u2019s possible interest in ITV Studios<\/a>. \u201cConsolidation is the name of the game,\u201d he said, adding that the company would keep all options open. \u201cWhen you look at the Warner-Paramount deal, it\u2019s very easy to understand why you need to be big and global to be relevant in this sector. So we share this view with RedBird IMI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn response to a reduction in advertising demand, ITV said in November that it had identified \u00a335 million of additional temporary savings in its Media & Entertainment (M&E) segment in the fourth quarter. \u201cThese savings align our M&E cost base \u2014 particularly content and discretionary spend \u2014 with the softer advertising demand we are seeing in the fourth quarter and will largely offset the expected reduction in total advertising revenue,\u201d it highlighted.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe targeted cuts included 20 million pounds ($26 million) in content savings, \u201cas we move some programming into 2026, which will be financed out of the existing 2026 content spending plans,\u201d ITV said.<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCall lauded ITV\u2019s \u201cgood performance in 2025, ahead of current market expectations and against a challenging market backdrop.\u201d She added: \u201cWith a strong digital platform, we have successfully capitalized on growth opportunities, delivered resilient profits and generated good levels of cash. Our results demonstrate the scale of our transformation as we continue to successfully execute our More Than TV strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ITV CEO also highlighted that \u201cwe have achieved a key strategic goal with two-thirds of our revenues now coming from ITV Studios and our digital M&E business.\u201d Looking ahead, McCall said: \u201cWe are focused on delivering continued strategic progress, driving profitable growth and strong cash generation, underpinned by our unwavering value creation strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of ITV\u2019s continuing cost-saving program, management is targeting a further \u00a320 million ($27 million) \u201cpermanent non-content cost savings in 2026 as we continue to create a leaner business.\u201d It added: \u201cWe expect our total content spend to be around \u00a31.225 billion ($1.640 billion) in 2026, as we continue to optimize our content spend to best reflect viewer dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst-quarter advertising revenue is forecast to be down around 2 percent. \u201cAs is normal, advertisers are holding back budgets in order to spend in the second and third quarters around the expanded Men\u2019s [soccer] World Cup,\u201d ITV said. \u201cWe are showing 19 more matches than in 2022, and with more matches at peak time. We are confident that the [Cup] will deliver a strong advertising performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about the volatile political situation in the Middle East\u2019s effect on advertisers\u2019 behavior, McCall said ITV has seen \u201cno impact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.K. TV giant\u00a0ITV\u00a0on Thursday reported slightly lower earnings for its ITV Studios production unit, due to a previously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[259608,64,63,1575,134,3389,6207,17301,12773,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-520187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-all3media","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-banijay","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-itv","15":"tag-itv-studios","16":"tag-sky","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}