ITV is forecasting a return to solid advertising growth in the second quarter of 2024 bolstered by its streaming business, after its overall advertising revenue took a significant hit throughout 2023.
Pinning its hopes on a summer advertising uplift spearheaded by its coverage of the Euro 2024 finals, the broadcaster isn’t entirely out of the woods just yet, having suffered a 7% decline in overall revenue across the first quarter.
Severely impacted by last year’s Hollywood strikes, ITV Studios has suffered an alarming 16% drop in advertising revenue to £382 million. This has, to a certain extent, been offset by a 14% growth in digital advertising across ITVX – contributing to modest 3% growth overall.
With the knock-on effect of the Hollywood strikes expected to push an estimated £80 million of revenue from 2024 into 2025, ITV expects revenue for its Studios division to remain broadly flat on last year.
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On a more positive note, the beleaguered broadcaster does expect its total advertising revenue to grow by as much as 12% in the second quarter, bolstered by ITVX’s continually robust performances.
While these figures won’t be the crystal clear recovery that ITV is looking for after suffering the effects of what CEO Carolyn McCall called the ‘worst advertising recession since the 2008 financial crisis’, these latest figures do indicate some green shoots of recovery – due in no small part to the increasing power of streaming.
In a trading update, McCall said: “ITV continues to execute its strategy successfully. Over the full year, we expect ITV Studios revenues to be broadly flat.
“We have a strong pipeline of programmes, good demand for our quality content as we increasingly diversify our customer base towards streamers and the phasing of deliveries is heavily weighted to the second half of the year, including Hell’s Kitchen US, The Better Sister, A.C.A.B, Showtrial and Ludwig.
“ITVX continued to build on its strong first year and delivered double-digit growth in both digital viewing and digital advertising revenues in Q1 and we expect continued strong growth in both throughout the year.”
