{"id":720526,"date":"2026-07-31T07:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/720526\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T07:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:53:08","slug":"itv-on-track-for-full-year-guidance-as-h1-profit-rises-and-100m-buyback-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/720526\/","title":{"rendered":"ITV on track for full-year guidance as H1 profit rises and \u00a3100m buyback announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk\/LON:ITV\/ITV-PLC\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ITV PLC (LSE:ITV)<\/a>\u00a0said its first-half 2026 performance was broadly in line with expectations and that it remains on track to deliver its full-year guidance, supported by growth in ITV Studios and continued momentum in digital advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Group revenue increased 2% to \u00a31.9 billion\u00a0in the six months to 30 June 2026, with external revenue up 1% at \u00a31.6 billion. Group adjusted EBITA was unchanged from a year earlier, while adjusted earnings per share rose 22% to 2.2p. Statutory profit before tax increased 16% to \u00a378\u00a0million\u00a0and statutory earnings per share rose 25% to 1.5p.<\/p>\n<p>ITV Studios reported 2% revenue growth, driven by higher internal revenue and growth in distribution revenues. Adjusted EBITA declined 9%, reflecting the timing of production deliveries, high-margin licensing deals weighted to the second half of the year and previously announced scheduling changes to soaps and daytime production.<\/p>\n<p>Media &amp; Entertainment generated 2% revenue growth, with Total Advertising Revenue increasing 3% during the first half and 8% in the second quarter. ITVX recorded a 27% increase in viewing and digital advertising revenue grew 13% year-on-year, supported by the Men&#8217;s Football World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Chief executive Carolyn McCall said:\u00a0&#8220;ITV delivered a solid H1 performance and we remain on track to deliver our full-year guidance, including good revenue growth in ITV Studios and strong, profitable digital revenue growth within Media &amp; Entertainment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The company said it continues to expect ITV Studios to deliver full-year revenue growth ahead of the wider market, with margins at the lower end of its 13% to 15% target range. It expects Total Advertising Revenue to decline by around 5% in the third quarter because of macroeconomic headwinds, leaving revenue for the first nine months broadly flat year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p>The board declared an interim dividend of 1.7p per share, unchanged from last year, representing a distribution of around \u00a360\u00a0million. ITV also announced a \u00a3100\u00a0million\u00a0share buyback, representing an early return of part of the expected \u00a3950\u00a0million\u00a0net cash proceeds from the proposed sale of Media &amp; Entertainment to Sky.<\/p>\n<p>The sale of Media &amp; Entertainment to Sky, announced on 6 July 2026, remains subject to regulatory approval. ITV said the Competition and Markets Authority has begun its review and, if the transaction proceeds to a Phase 2 investigation, completion is expected in the second half of 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ITV PLC (LSE:ITV)\u00a0said its first-half 2026 performance was broadly in line with expectations and that it remains on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":720527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-720526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/720527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}