ITV has revealed its Interim Management Statement showing that total external revenues are up four per cent for the broadcaster to £1,573 million.
Non-NAR revenues driven by ITV Studios were up 15 per cent on 2011’s figure of £633 million to £730 million. ITV Studios was also found to be trading strongly with total revenues up by 20 per cent to £416 million.
ITV plc chief executive, Adam Crozier, commented: “We have made further progress in reshaping and rebalancing ITV to ensure the business is more robust both commercially and creatively. The momentum we are building in our non-NAR revenues has helped grow group revenues up four per cent to £1,573 million in difficult economic conditions and with a broadly flat television advertising market.
“ITV Studios has performed strongly as our strategy of investing in the creative pipeline and talent again shows through in our results. We expect ITV Studios to report over £100 million of profit in 2012, and the number of new commissions and recommissions already secured for 2013 gives us confidence that there will continue to be good underlying growth in the Studios business.”
ITV Family NAR was revealed to have been flat over the first nine months ahead of the TV ad market, with ITV Family SOV down by three per cent. Digital channels were, however, up three per cent for the ten months to the end of October.
Total cost savings for ITV were found to be around £30 million for 2013, a full £10 million ahead of the original target. The report also states ITV is in a positive net cash position of £90 million.
Speaking of these figures, Crozier, added: “We have maintained our focus on cash and costs. Our financial position is strong with positive net cash of £90 million and we will deliver around £30 million of cost savings this year, £10 million ahead of our original target.”
Adding: "This has been an extraordinary year for UK television with many unique events including the Queen's Jubilee, The London Olympics and the Paralympics. In fact nine out of the top ten programmes aired will not return next year and as we expected this has affected our viewing performance. However, we do not expect our viewing performance in 2012 to impact our advertising share in 2013 and we are focussed on growing our share of viewing next year.”