Strategic Report

Chief Executive's statement

2024 has been a successful year - financially, operationally and creatively, driven by strong execution. This reflects ITV's significant strategic progress despite the rapidly changing market in which we operate.

Carolyn McCall

Chief Executive

ITV delivered double-digit earnings growth across the Group, with record profits in Studios, and an increase in the profits and margin of M&E. ITV Studios performed well despite the expected one-off impact of US strikes and softer demand from free-to-air broadcasters, which reflects the scale, quality, diversification and resilience of the business.

ITVX continued to drive strong growth in digital viewing and revenue and is delivering attractive returns.  ITVX viewing has grown faster than all the other major video-on-demand services and streaming platforms since its launch. Broadcast has maintained its strength in delivering mass reach and continued strong cash generation.

Creatively, we have had a standout year producing and distributing critically acclaimed content globally that continues to set us apart in the market, and 2024 has demonstrated that the programmes we produce and distribute can change attitudes, outcomes, and even the law.

Financial Highlights

ITV's transformation has made it more agile and resilient, which have been key to its success over the years, and this is evident in its 2024 financial performance.

Group adjusted EBITA¹, grew 11% to £542 million following our year of peak net investment in 2023 and adjusted EPS was up 23% at 9.6p. 

Total ITV Group revenue was down 3% and total external revenue declined by 4%, with 2% growth in total advertising revenue offset by the expected decline in ITV Studios revenue. Within M&E, ITVX continued to drive strong growth in digital viewing, which was up 12%, and in digital advertising revenue, which grew 15% year-on-year. Digital advertising now makes up 26% of total advertising revenues.

Our statutory results benefited from the profit on the sale of BritBox International in March 2024, with statutory profit before tax up 170% to £521 million and statutory EPS increasing by 100% to 10.4p.

Cash generation was strong with 83% profit to cash conversion and £325 million of free cash flow. ITV has a robust balance sheet with net debt of £431 million, and net debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage of 0.7x at 31 December 2024.

In line with ITV's dividend policy, the Board has proposed a final dividend of 3.3p (2023: 3.3p), giving an ordinary dividend of 5.0p per share for the full year 2024 (2023: 5.0p) - a total payment of around £190 million. Since 2018, we have returned over £1.4 billion to shareholders, which includes £198 million of our £235 million share buyback programme as at 31 December 2024.

Our Progress in Delivering Our Purpose, Vision and More Than TV Strategy

Our purpose is Making What Matters, entertaining and connecting with millions of people in the UK and globally, reflecting and shaping culture and building brands, with brilliant content and creativity.

We announced Phase Two of our More Than TV strategy three years ago with the vision that by 2026, ITV will be a leader in UK advertiser-funded streaming, and an expanding global force in content.

To deliver our vision and strategy, we are focused on three pillars:

•   Expand our UK and global production business

•   Supercharge our Streaming business

•   Optimise our Broadcast business

These pillars are underpinned by a number of priorities (detailed further below), for which we have key performance indicator (KPI) targets to deliver by 2026. ITV has made strong strategic progress and the 2024 results demonstrate the significant achievements we have made.  

We have transformed ITV into a much leaner, digital, more diversified and adaptable business, fit for the future with good opportunities for profitable growth, strong cash generation and attractive returns to shareholders.

1. Group adjusted EBITA includes £13 million of Audio- Visual Expenditure Credits, refer to APMs for further details

Expand ITV Studios

In ITV Studios we have built a scaled, global, diversified and resilient business, driven by very strong creative output, and being focused on delivering good growth and taking market share, benefitting from our significant competitive advantages.

ITV Studios is the largest commercial producer in the UK, one of the largest unscripted producers in the US, and in the top three producers in the key creative markets in which it operates. We produce a broad range of content for a diversified customer base. Over the last two years, around 35% of ITV Studios' revenue has come from the expanding scripted market and around 30% from growing streaming platforms.

In 2024 we saw creative successes with programmes such as Mr Bates vs The Post Office, ITV's biggest drama in over 20 years; Fool Me Once, one of Netflix's most watched shows of all time; Season 6 of Love Island US, the number one reality series across all streaming platforms in the US; and Citadel Diana, Amazon Prime Video's biggest global launch for an Italian original ever.

We continue to successfully attract and retain talent. Our unique blend of creative independence, an entrepreneurial culture, and the resources of a global studio allows our talent to thrive. Recent acquisitions include Hartswood Films in the UK, the producer of Sherlock, and one of the fastest-growing producers Eagle Eye Drama, the producer of Professor T.

The global content market is large and attractive and we anticipate growth in the key segments of the market in which we operate. This includes premium scripted content and unscripted formats driven by the strong demand from streaming platforms, and catalogue sales, particularly with strong growth in digital distribution.

We have an exciting pipeline of new and returning programmes across scripted and unscripted for a broad range of customers, such as One Piece S2 for Netflix, Rivals S2 for Disney+ and Destination X for the BBC and NBC.

In addition, we have a catalogue of over 95,000 hours, including world-class unscripted IP, and a leading drama library. Having a scaled quality catalogue, gives us really exciting new revenue opportunities as distribution becomes increasingly digital with continuous technological change.

In January 2025, ITV Studios launched Zoo 55, a new digital studios label. Through Zoo 55, we digitally publish ITV content and third party content, globally into social channels, direct to the consumer. This is through social video, free ad supported or FAST channels and through games. Zoo 55 centralises all these activities and supercharges our ability to distribute and monetise it much more effectively.   In 2024, Zoo 55 delivered around £60 million of high-margin digital revenue, up c.30% year-on-year, and we expect to double this by the end of 2027, as we launch more channels and games in more territories.

ITV Studios is on track to deliver its key financial targets of total organic revenue growth of 5% on average per annum from 2021 to 2026 - ahead of the market, and at a margin of 13 to 15%.  We remain focused on the four strategic priorities (as detailed below) and are confident in our ability to continue growing our market share and deliver exceptional content globally.

Media & Entertainment (M&E)

ITV M&E is the UK's largest commercial broadcaster and BVOD streamer, delivering unrivalled audience scale and reach. It is underpinned by two strategic pillars; Supercharge Streaming and Optimise Broadcast, both of which are critical to our continued success in a rapidly changing market.

The media landscape has changed profoundly since we launched our strategy. Declining linear TV viewing coupled with growth in digital viewing, the proliferation of streaming services (19 new entrants in the UK since 2018 with five having ad-tiers), and the growing influence of platforms like YouTube (viewing up nearly 20% since 2022), have dramatically reshaped the competitive environment.

ITV's strategy recognises these rapid changes and has been laser focused on capitalising on the opportunities and managing and mitigating the risks.  Our priority was to transform our streaming and addressable advertising proposition to enable us to retain our existing viewers and advertisers while attracting new ones, and growing our addressable market to drive digital revenues. Through ITVX and Planet V, we've established a formidable position in the UK ad-funded streaming market.

ITVX has transformed the viewer experience, offering over 22,000 hours of free content, up from around 1,000 hours in 2019. It has a sophisticated personalisation and recommendations engine, and is on nearly 100% of all platforms.  This has driven significant growth in digital viewing and in 2024, streaming hours and MAUs were up 12% and 14% year-on-year respectively.

Planet V has been critical to the success of ITVX. The platform has over 2,000 users in the UK who have access to data from over 40 million ITVX registered users, one of the UK's largest first-party data sets, and over 20,000 addressable targeting options. This has enabled us to attract over 1,000 new advertisers since launch and deliver double-digit growth in CPMs. And as its wholly owned, we keep 100% of the revenue.

When we launched ITVX we expected the point when in-year incremental digital revenues would exceed in-year incremental costs of ITVX, to be in 2026. We achieved this milestone in 2024, delivering strong growth in viewing and revenues in line with our plan, but with less investment than initially planned. We did this by optimising our content and tech spend, adapting to the changing market and taking advantage of opportunities to reduce spend. By the end of 2025, we will have recouped the cumulative investment in ITX, , much earlier than expected.

We will continue to drive strong growth in digital viewing and revenue in ITX by focusing on our key value drivers - content, marketing, distribution, product and monetisation.

In addition to ITVX, we are actively developing new digital revenue streams to drive profitable growth. We are making hundreds more hours of long and short form ITV content available on YouTube, with ITV Commercial selling the advertising around it. This offers advertisers the opportunity to engage with ITV's unparalleled premium brand safe content on YouTube, and for ITV this increases our addressable market.

We are also developing opportunities for organic growth, beyond advertising, by reshaping our business unit, Interactive, to drive revenue through high value partnerships that leverage our scaled platform, our powerful brand and IP and our first party data. By moving beyond advertising, we aim to create innovative collaborations that deliver value, enhance customer experiences and unlock new digital revenue streams. For example, we are further developing ITV Win as a premium destination for competitions and gaming. We now have the capability and culture to deliver a more entrepreneurial approach.

These revenues will contribute to our key M&E financial target of at least £750 million of digital revenues by 2026, which we are on track to deliver.

Alongside ITVX we are focused on maintaining our strength in delivering mass audiences which are highly valuable for advertisers. In 2024, we delivered 92% of the top 1,000 commercial audiences across key genres of sport, entertainment, reality, and drama.  This robust performance cements ITV's unique market-leading position in UK broadcast.

Across M&E we have significant competitive advantages.  We are the commercial leader in scale and reach on the TV set where the majority of all viewing still takes place. Our share of commercial big screen adult viewing is 22%, bigger than Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ combined. We have a trusted brand and a strong track record for producing and distributing content which appeals to UK audiences.  We have a unique commercial proposition offering mass reach, and commercial and creative partnerships all in a brand-safe and measured environment. Our extensive first-party data provides valuable insights for commissioning and windowing, driving viewing, it also improves marketing effectiveness. By augmenting our data with other first-party data, we can deliver highly valuable targeted advertising at scale, which is even more effective for advertisers.

We are focused on delivering profitable growth and expanding the margin, benefitting from these significant competitive advantages, developing new revenue opportunities and driving efficiencies.

 

Our More Than TV strategy

Vertically Integrated Producer Broadcaster and Streamer

Expand studios

Further expanding by genre, geography and customer and growing faster than market

2026 STUDIOS TARGET

Grow total organic revenues by 5% on average per annum to 2026 - which is ahead of the market at a margin of 13% to 15%

Optimise BROADCAST

Digitally transforming as we continue to attract commercial broadcast audiences of unparalleled scale

Supercharge STREAMING

Driving digital viewing and revenue through ITVX and Planet V, ITV's leading addressable advertising platform

2026 M&E TARGET

Grow digital revenues to at least £750m across M&E

ITV Studios - Strategic priorities and KPI targets

Expanding UK and global productions is central to ITV's strategy. ITV Studios' ambition is to be a leading force in the creation and ownership of intellectual property (IP), global content production and distribution. We are achieving this by focusing on our four strategic priorities to drive revenue and profit growth.

	PRIORITIES	WHY IT'S IMPORTANT	FY 2026 TARGET	FY 2024	WHAT IT DRIVES
STUDIOS	1. Grow our scripted business	To meet the growing global demand for scripted content, particularly from streaming platforms	400 high-end scripted hours per annum	296 hours (2023: 316 hours)	Growth in total organic revenue of 5% on average per annum to 20262 which is ahead of the market Delivers adjusted EBITA3 margins of 13% to 15%   In 2024, total organic revenue declined 5% at an adjusted EBITA margin of 14.7%
	2. Grow our global formats business	To maximise international monetisation of high-value formats	20 formats sold in three or more countries	20 formats (2023: 19 formats)
	3. Further diversify our customer base	To capture the growth in content spend from local and global streaming platforms	30% of total revenues from streaming platforms	25% (2023: 32%)
	4. Attract and retain leading talent	Key to creative success of a studios business	N/A	N/A

 

2. Average annual growth rate from 2021

3. Refer to APMs for detail on our adjusted measures

 

Media & Entertainment - Strategic priorities and KPI targets

ITV's M&E strategy is based on two core pillars: Supercharge Streaming and Optimise Broadcast, with strategic priorities to drive growth in digital revenues and maintain strength in linear.

	PRIORITIES	WHY IT'S IMPORTANT	FY 2026 TARGET	FY 2024	WHAT IT DRIVES
STREAMING	1. Attract more monthly active users to ITVX	ITV's reach is key to retaining and attracting advertisers	Grow monthly active users to 20 million	14.3 million (2023: 12.5 million)	Growth in digital revenues to at least £750 million by 2026 Revenues from linear TV advertising, commercial and creative partnerships, and sponsorship   In 2024, total digital revenues were £556 million, up 12% year-on-year
	2. Increase the time users spend on ITVX	ITV's scale is key to retaining and attracting advertisers	Grow total streaming hours to 2 billion hours	1,686 million hours (2023: 1,506 million hours)
	3. Increase UK subscriber base	Monetising ITV viewers who are willing to pay for ad-free and additional content	Grow subscribers to 2.5 million	1.0 million (2023: 1.3 million)
Broadcast	4. Maintain our strength in delivering mass linear audiences	ITV's mass linear audiences remain very important to UK advertisers	Maintain a share of at least 80% of the top 1,000 programmes	92% (2023: 91%)
	5. Maintain ITV's position in UK broadcast market	ITV's scale remains very important to UK advertisers	Maintain a share of commercial viewing of 33%	32.2% (2023: 32.6%)

 

 

Refer to our KPIs section further details of our KPIs and their performance year-on-year.

Cost and Efficiency programme

We continue to focus on reducing costs and driving efficiencies through our ongoing transformation and cost efficiency programme as we reprioritise our resource allocation to better align with our strategy and viewer dynamics. 

We delivered £60 million of savings in 2024 which is £10 million ahead of plan, and we have now completed our initial £150 million savings plan - one year early. Savings during the year were achieved through reductions in transmission costs, technology and operational efficiencies, organisational redesign across the business and simplifying ways of working. These savings have funded investments, increased margins and more than offset inflation in both businesses.

In 2025, we expect £30 million of new savings which is a combination of new initiatives and the annualised benefits from 2024 savings.

Regulation

The Media Act 2024, which was passed into law in July 2024, updates the legal and regulatory framework for television, particularly how it is delivered online. This should help ensure that content from PSBs, including ITV, will be included and easily discoverable on all major streaming platforms, on fair commercial terms. We remain fully engaged with Ofcom and the Government throughout the processes necessary for its full implementation.

In September 2024, the new Government confirmed its intention to implement advertising restrictions on less healthy foods (LHF) from October 2025.  Advertising of LHF products will be restricted pre-9pm on Ofcom-regulated TV and streaming services, and at all times online.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is currently consulting on how it intends to implement the forthcoming restrictions on LHF advertising, which may include restricting brand advertising in some circumstances. We will engage with the consultation.

Our Social Purpose

ITV aims to inspire positive change and shape culture for good through its linear TV channels ITVX, and its prominent position as a Public Service Broadcaster in the UK. Our social purpose is focused on four areas: Mental Wellbeing, Better Futures, Climate Action, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

In 2024, our Mental Wellbeing campaigns, which included the iconic Britain Get Talking, led to over 47 million people taking positive action for their mental health. World Wide Fund for Nature won our Head First award of £1 million of airtime to promote mental wellbeing in advertising with their campaign launched in Q4 2024. Within Better Futures, Soccer Aid for UNICEF surpassed an incredible milestone of over £100 million raised since it started. 

ITV is committed to integrating climate action within all areas of the business. We have championed new production methods to cut our emissions such as remote production and using electric vehicles on set. We are also driving change on-screen, embedding climate-related content across all genres. Our recently published Climate Transition Plan will guide our efforts to prioritise impactful climate actions while driving value for the business and our stakeholders.

We continue to implement our global DEI strategy, championing diversity through our mainstream content, creating equitable opportunities at ITV and across the industry, and creating an inclusive culture at ITV. Our newly established Diversity Development Fund has led to the commissioning of programmes such as Romesh Ranganathan's Parents' Evening.

Duty of Care

ITV takes its responsibilities related to Duty of Care and Speaking Up very seriously, with significant focus from the Board and Executive Committee. We have robust and established processes in place to support the physical and mental health of everyone working for and with ITV, including those who help produce our shows and those who take part in them. We also provide confidential and anonymous channels through which concerns can be reported, and we ensure that we look into all complaints raised.

In 2024, we continued to prioritise awareness and engagement with our Speaking Up programme. This included launching a dedicated Complaints Handling Unit and Framework. A review by Dr Paul Litchfield during the year concluded that we provide a very high level of duty of care to participants of our shows.

Our Chief People Officer, Ade Rawcliffe, now chairs the Duty of Care Operating Board and we ensure the continuous evolution of our care practices. Duty of Care also remains a principal risk that the Board monitors regularly. Further details can be found in the Risks and Uncertainties section .

Colleagues

Over the 70 years of ITV's history, our people have been the bedrock of the business and fundamental to ITV's success. This remains true to this day, and I am incredibly grateful to all our colleagues for their hard work, resilience, and professionalism, particularly given the uncertainty in a rapidly changing environment, which has resulted in restructuring and a focus on efficiency and productivity.

We've achieved a huge amount in 2024 in continuing to deliver our strategy effectively, and everyone should feel really proud of what we have accomplished together.

Our Ambassador network has grown stronger and is a vital part of how the Board and I engage with our colleagues. During the year, we also ran a series of Roadshows across ITV globally, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting many of our colleagues from all areas of the business.

We recently launched 'Making What Matters' internally, which captures what sets us apart and makes ITV a special place to work. I am pleased that in our 2024 Pulse Engagement survey, 75% of colleagues who responded feel they belong at ITV.

In 2025, we will continue to prioritise and invest in our colleagues by further driving a culture of open communication and collaboration, providing learning and development opportunities, and championing diversity and inclusion to ensure that ITV is a workplace where everyone feels welcome and respected.

It is through our collective efforts that we will continue to execute our More Than TV strategy and ensure that ITV thrives in the industry for the next 70 years.

Outlook

We are really proud of the strategic progress we have made to date. We have transformed ITV from an analogue business to a successful digital business where we have built the capability and created an adaptable and agile culture while nurturing and growing our creative power.

As we continue to grow ITV Studios and our digital revenues, ITV is becoming a more resilient business with production and digital now accounting for close to two-thirds of our revenue. This is underpinned by the powerful reach and strong cash generation of Broadcast.

We see lots of opportunities for further organic growth, and with our significant competitive advantages and clear strategic pillars, we are in a really strong position to deliver profitable growth, strong cash generation and attractive returns to shareholders.

Carolyn McCall

Chief Executive

 

Key Performance Indicators

Our KPIs and related targets for 2026 align our performance and accountability with our strategic priorities. This is detailed further in the Strategy section of the Chief Executive's Statement.

All KPIs are reported on a six‑month basis. The following are reported quarterly: ITV Studios total revenue growth, total digital revenue, total streaming hours, share of commercial viewing and share of top 1,000 commercial broadcast TV programmes.

For further details on the performance of our KPIs, see the Operating and Financial Performance Review.

ITV Group

Adjusted EPS1	Cost savings	Profit to cash conversion1
9.6p +23% on 2023	£190m cumulative savings since 2018	83%
Adjusted EPS represents the adjusted profit after tax1 attributable to each equity share in the year. It is an important measure as we aim to create long-term value for our shareholders. Performance Adjusted EPS increased by 23% from 7.8p to 9.6p. This was driven by year-on-year growth in total advertising revenue, combined with an increase in the EBITA1 of ITV Studios and M&E, and significant cost savings across the Group.	Cost savings are permanent savings to the business. Managing our cost base and mitigating the impact of inflation is key, as we aim to run our business as efficiently as possible, and fund investments in line with our strategic priorities. Performance We delivered £60 million of permanent efficiencies in 2024 and £190 million since 2018. The £60 million comprised £20 million of our initial £150 million plan - now fully completed - and £40 million of savings as part of our ongoing strategic restructuring and efficiency programme. We expect to deliver a further £30 million of non-content savings in 2025, which is a combination of new initiatives and annualised benefits from the 2024 savings. 2026 Target Deliver over £150 million of cumulative savings between 2018 and 2026.	One of ITV's strengths is its cash generation. Profit to cash conversion serves as a key indicator in measuring our effectiveness in exercising tight management of working capital balances. It is calculated as our adjusted cash flow as a proportion of adjusted EBITA1. Performance Profit to cash conversion was 83% in the year. Working capital had a significant outflow year-on-year, driven by an increase in production inventories predominantly in the US following the actors' and writers' strike in 2023. 2026 Target Maintain at around 85%.

 

Expand STUDIOS UK and global production

ITV Studios total organic revenue growth2	Total high‑end scripted hours	% of ITV Studios total revenue from streaming platforms
-5% on 2023	296 hrs -6% on 2023	25% -7 basis points on 2023
ITV Studios total organic revenue growth measures the scale and success of our global Studios business. It includes revenues from programmes sold to M&E, which as a vertically integrated producer, broadcaster and streamer, is an important part of our business. Performance Total organic revenue was down 5%, driven by the impact of the 2023 US writers' and actors' strikes, which delayed around £80 million of revenue from 2024 to 2025. This was combined with lower demand from free-to-air broadcasters in Europe and strong comparatives from the phasing of high-value deliveries year-on-year. Organic revenue excludes the impact of a £30 million unfavourable foreign exchange movement and £20 million of acquisitions and disposals in the year. 2026 Target Grow by 5% on average per annum (from 2021).	Total high‑end scripted hours is an important measure in assessing the success of our strategic priority, to grow our scripted business. High‑end scripted hours include new commissions or returning franchises that have a higher cost per hour than continuing drama. Performance The number of high‑end scripted hours produced by ITV Studios decreased by 6% to 296 hours in 2024, driven by the impact from the US actors' and writers' strikes and strong comparatives from the phasing of high-value scripted deliveries year-on-year, particularly to streaming platforms in the UK and US. 2026 Target Grow to 400 hours.	Over the medium term, the key driver of growth in the global content market is expected to be from streaming platforms. The percentage of ITV Studios total revenue from streaming platforms is an important measure of delivering its strategic priority of further diversifying its customer base and meeting its 2026 total organic revenue growth target. Performance The percentage of ITV Studios total revenue from streaming platforms declined to 25%, driven by the impact from the US actors' and writers' strikes and strong comparatives from the phasing of high-value deliveries in 2023, particularly in the UK and US. Offsetting some of this decline in 2024 were deliveries, such as Queer Eye and Missing You for Netflix, The Better Sister for Amazon Prime Video, and Virgin Island for Hulu. 2026 Target Grow to 30% of ITV Studios total revenue.

 

 

 

1. A full reconciliation between our adjusted and statutory results is provided in the APMs section

2. Our APMs are defined within the APMs section of this report. It also includes a full reconciliation between our adjusted and statutory results

ITV Studios adjusted EBITA2 margin %	Number of formats sold in three or more countries3
14.7% +1.5 basis points on 2023	20 formats +5% on 2023
This is the key profitability measure used across the ITV Studios business. The margin is calculated on ITV Studios total revenue. Performance ITV Studios adjusted EBITA margin was 14.7% (2023: 13.2%) and is at the high-end of our range. This reflects an increase in higher margin catalogue sales, the actions we have taken on cost, and £13 million impact of Audio-Visual Expenditure Credits (AVEC) during the year. 2026 Target Deliver in the 13% to 15% range.	The Studios business is focused on maximising the international monetisation of high-value formats. A good measure of international success is when a format is commissioned in three or more countries in the year. Performance The number of formats sold in three or more countries was 20 and in line with our 2026 target. Recent formats that have sold in three or more countries include: Love Island, The Chase, and Hell's Kitchen. 2026 Target Grow to 20 formats.

 

M&E SUPERCHARGE STREAMING

Total digital revenue4	Monthly active users (MAU)6
£556m +12% on 2023	14.3m +14% on 2023
Total digital revenue comprises all revenue streams from our digital businesses, predominantly digital advertising. It is an important measure of the acceleration of our digital strategy as we supercharge streaming. Performance Total digital revenue grew 12% to £556 million. The growth was driven by digital advertising revenue, which was up 15%. This was marginally offset by the expected decline in subscription revenues. 2026 Target More than double (compared to 2021) to at least £750m.	Attracting more monthly active users to ITVX is a key strategic priority. It increases reach, which is important to attract and retain advertisers and contributes to total digital revenue growth. Performance Monthly active users grew 14% to 14.3 million. As with total streaming hours, the growth in monthly active users has been driven by investment in the quality and scale of content on ITVX, the enhanced product and user experience, and the expanded distribution and marketing activity. 2026 Target Double (compared to 2021) to 20m.
Total streaming hours5	UK subscribers7
1,686m hrs +12% on 2023	1.0m ‑23% on 2023
Increasing the time users spend streaming ITV content is a key strategic priority. It drives scale, which is important to attract and retain advertisers, and contributes to total digital revenue growth. Performance Total streaming hours increased 12% to 1,686 million hours. This growth reflects our high-quality content offering, along with our investment in ITVX to enhance the product and user experience, and to expand our distribution and marketing activity. This has helped retain and attract more users, who have watched content for longer. 2026 Target Double (compared to 2021) to 2bn hours.	UK subscribers capture total UK subscriptions to ITV streaming platforms. It is a measure of the monetisation of ITV viewers, who are willing to pay for ad-free and additional content. With the changing market dynamics, we have prioritised our ad-funded proposition over our paid proposition to deliver the best return and drive digital revenues. Subscribers as a KPI are therefore less important. Performance Total UK subscribers as of 31 December 2024 was down 23% year-on-year, as we consolidated subscriptions from our standalone app, BritBox UK, into ITVX Premium. This was combined with the closing of the legacy ITV catch-up service on Amazon Prime Video Channels. 2026 Target Double (compared to 2021) to 2.5m.

 

 

2. Our APMs are defined within the APMs section of this report. It also includes a full reconciliation between our adjusted and statutory results

3. Spin-offs such as Love Island Games, are considered distinct from the original format (i.e. Love Island) for the purpose of this indicator

4. Total digital revenue includes revenue from digital advertising, subscriptions, linear addressable advertising, digital sponsorship and partnerships, ITV Win and any other revenues from digital business ventures. In addition, digital advertising revenue now includes previously omitted revenue streams such as commission from STV for ITV selling their video-on-demand inventory and social media advertising revenue, which qualify under the definition. The prior years have been restated to reflect the change in categorisation. Given the nature of digital revenue it will evolve over time. 2023 was previously reported as £490 million and 2022 as £411 million

5. Total streaming hours is the total number of hours viewers spent watching ITV across all streaming platforms, reported at a device level. This figure includes both ad-funded and subscription streaming. In 2023, full year results, total streaming hours were reported as 1,505 million hours, which included some estimates of total streaming viewing from third-party data providers. This figure has since been updated to reflect the final data

6. Monthly active users captures the average number of identifiable users throughout the period who accessed our owned, operated, and IP-delivered content and services each month

7. UK subscribers are users of ITVX's premium tier. It includes those who pay ITV directly, those who are paid for by an operator, and free trialists. Prior to the closure in 2024, it also included subscribers to the BritBox UK service on Amazon Prime Video Channels along with the BritBox UK standalone app. Before the launch of ITVX in December 2022, this also included ITV Hub+ subscriptions

 

M&E OPTIMISE BROADCAST

Share of top 1,000 commercial broadcast TV programmes8	Share of commercial viewing9
92% +1 basis point on 2023	32.2% -0.4 basis points on 2023
Maintaining our strength in delivering mass commercial linear TV audiences enables ITV to attract and retain advertisers and command a premium from them. Performance Our 2024 share was 92%, which was up 1% point year-on-year. 2024 included critically acclaimed dramas, such as Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Until I Kill You, entertainment formats, such as Love Island and The 1% Club, and sporting events, such as the Euros, which helped to maintain ITV's strong commercial mass audience proposition. 2026 Target Maintain a share of at least 80%.	Maintaining ITV's number one position in the UK broadcast market helps us attract and retain advertisers, and is vital to maximising advertising revenues. Performance Share of commercial viewing decreased marginally by 0.4% points to 32.2%. Other commercial broadcasters took share in 2024 with more viewing to sport and drama in their schedules compared to the prior year. Target Maintain at 33%.

 

8.  The share of top 1,000 commercial broadcast TV programmes is measured by BARB based on viewing figures. This includes TV viewing from transmission and seven days post-transmission on catch up, as well as six weeks prior to the transmission window. It excludes programmes with a duration of <ten minutes. This metric is calculated as a 12-month rolling average to normalise seasonal scheduling

9.  Share of commercial viewing is the total viewing of audiences over the period achieved by ITV's family of channels as a proportion of all ad-supported commercial broadcaster viewing in the UK. ITV Family includes ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITVBe, CITV, ITV Breakfast, CITV Breakfast and associated 'HD' and '+1' channels. Note that CITV closed down and became a fully on demand service on ITVX in September 2023

 

Operating and financial performance review

 

ITV made good strategic progress during 2024, driven by strong execution and industry-leading creativity.

Group financial overview¹

ITV delivered a strong financial, operating and creative performance with an 11% increase in group adjusted EBITA². ITV Studios delivered record profits, with an increase in the Media & Entertainment (M&E) margin.  ITVX continued its strong revenue and viewing performance, delivering 15% growth in digital advertising revenue in the year.

In 2024, total ITV revenue decreased by 3%, mainly driven by the expected decline in ITV Studios from the impact of the 2023 US writers' and actors' strike, a softer market from free-to-air broadcasters (FTA), and strong comparatives from high-value deliveries in 2023. This offset growth in TAR, which was up 2% year-on-year, in line with expectations. Total external revenue was down 4%.

Both ITV Studios and M&E delivered improved margins year-on-year. ITV Studios adjusted EBITA, including Audio-Visual Expenditure Credits (AVEC), increased by 5% at a margin of 14.7%3. M&E adjusted EBITA increased by 22% reflecting the growth in TAR, lower content costs, and significant cost savings delivered across the Group.

Financial highlights

Twelve months to 31 December	2024 £m	2023 £m	Change £m	Change %
ITV Studios	2,038	2,170	(132)	(6)
M&E	2,102	2,090	12	1
Total Revenue	4,140	4,260	(120)	(3)
Internal revenue	(652)	(636)	(16)	3
Total External Revenue	3,488	3,624	(136)	(4)
Total non-advertising revenue	2,320	2,482	(162)	(7)
ITV Studios adjusted EBITA2	299	286	13	5
M&E adjusted EBITA	250	205	45	22
Adjusted EBITA	549	491	58	12
Unrealised profit in stock adjustment	(7)	(2)	(5)	(250)
Group adjusted EBITA	542	489	53	11
Group adjusted EBITA margin	16%	13%	-	3% pts
Statutory operating profit	318	238	80	34
Adjusted EPS (p)	9.6p	7.8p	1.8p	23
Statutory EPS (p)	10.4p	5.2p	5.2p	100
Net Debt at 31 December	431	553	(122)	(22)
Leverage	0.7x	1.0x	(0.3)x

 

Key financials

Group external revenue £3,488m -4% vs 2023	Total ITV Studios revenue £2,038m -6% vs 2023	Total digital revenue £556m +12% vs 2023	Group adjusted EBITA £542m +11% vs 2023
Statutory operating profit £318m +34% vs 2023	Adjusted EPS 9.6p +23% vs 2023	Statutory EPS 10.4p +100% vs 2023	Net debt £431m 31 Dec 2023: £553m

 

1. We measure performance through a range of metrics, particularly through our APMs and KPIs, as well as statutory results, all of which are set out and defined in the APMs and KPIs section

2. Refer to APMs for key adjustments to EBITA and adjusted EBITA

3. ITV Studios adjusted EBITA includes a £13 million impact from the change in legislation on Audio-Visual Expenditure Credits (AVEC), effective on expenditure incurred from 1 January 2024. Expenditure credits on qualifying expenditure is included within operating profit rather than within the consolidated tax charge. As a result, our EBITA, adjusted EBITA, adjusted EBITA margin, profit before tax and tax charge increase, but profit after tax and EPS is unchanged, compared to the previous High-End TV accounting treatment. Excluding the impact of AVEC, ITV Studios adjusted EBITA was flat year-on-year and Group adjusted EBITA increased by 8% to £529 million

We continue to transform and restructure the way we operate in response to changing viewer behaviour and reflecting the dynamics of the industry in which we operate. We are reshaping our cost base, enhancing profitability and investing in the growth drivers of ITV Studios and streaming. We have delivered £60 million of incremental in-year cost savings which have come from across the business, including technology and operational efficiencies, permanent reductions in discretionary spend, and organisational redesign. This comprises £20 million from our existing £150 million cost-saving target, which has now been fully delivered, and £40 million of additional savings as part of our ongoing transformation and efficiency programme, which we announced in March 2024 as we continue to digitally transform the business.

Profit in stock of £7 million (2023: £2m) increased year-on-year reflecting the renewal of several multi-year deals between Global Partnerships and M&E for content on ITVX.

Total operating exceptional items were £65 million (2023: £77 million) as guided. It includes £50 million of restructuring and transformation costs to reduce the cost base and deliver our new programme rights, finance and HR systems (see note 2.2 of the Financial information for further detail).

Adjusted financing costs were down in the year at £25 million (2023: £29 million), largely due to interest received on the BritBox International sale proceeds, which were held on deposit during the year in a higher interest rate environment. This offset the financing costs attributable to our loans and bonds. Statutory net financing costs were £nil compared to £45 million in 2023, with the decline driven by the fair value gains on bonds that were repaid in the year, interest accrued on acquisition-related exceptional expenses, unrealised foreign exchange losses, imputed pension interest income and fair value adjustments on financial assets and acquisition-related put option liabilities.

Our adjusted effective tax rate was 20.8% (2023: 21.5%) and the statutory effective tax rate was 22.1% (2023: (8.3)%). The higher statutory tax rate in the year was due to the change in the UK regime for tax credits on productions, which increased the effective tax rate.

Adjusted EPS for the year was 9.6p (2023: 7.8p), with statutory EPS increasing from 5.2p to 10.4p. See the Finance Review for further detail.

Our profit to cash conversion (which is an APM) was 83% (31 December 2023: 102%). In 2024, we had free cash flow of £325 million (31 December 2023: £361 million), reflecting a significant outflow of working capital as a result of the resumption of productions in the US following the strikes in 2023.

In addition, our net debt at 31 December 2024 was £431 million (2023: £553 million) and our net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 0.7x (2023: 1.0x). Net debt includes net proceeds from the sale of BritBox International, which was funding the £235 million share buyback. Refer to the Finance Review for further detail.

We have good access to liquidity. At 31 December 2024, we had cash and committed undrawn facilities totalling £1,377 million, including total cash of £427 million (2023: £1,240 million, including total cash of £340 million).

During 2024, we extended the maturity profile of ITV's debt through the issuance of a €500 million Eurobond to June 2032. The proceeds were used to repay the £230 million term loan (maturing in 2027), and retire €240 million of the €600 million Eurobond (due in 2026).

We have a clear capital allocation policy, and our priorities remain unchanged (see the Finance Review for further details).

The Board recognises the importance of the ordinary dividend to ITV shareholders. Reflecting its confidence in the business and its strategy, as well as the continued strong cash generation and share buyback during 2024, the Board has proposed a final dividend of 3.3p (2023: 3.3p), giving a full year ordinary dividend of 5.0p per share for 2024 (2023: 5.0p).

The Board remains committed to paying a full year ordinary dividend of at least 5.0p in 2025, which it expects to grow over the medium term.

Following the sale of ITV's 50% shareholding in BritBox International to BBC Studios on 1 March 2024 for a cash consideration of £255 million, the Board returned the entire net proceeds to shareholders through a £235 million share buyback. At 31 December 2024, £198 million (270 million shares) had been bought back.

We remain focused on managing our cash and costs while continuing to invest in delivering our strategic priorities. Our robust balance sheet allows us to do this while delivering returns to shareholders.

A range of downside scenarios reflecting ITV's principal risks has been modelled and considered in the assessment of ITV's longer term viability, refer to the Long term Viability section.

ITV Studios

ITV Studios is a scaled and global creator, owner and distributor of high quality TV content, diversified by genre, geography and customer, with 60+ labels in 13 of the key creative markets around the world.

ITV Studios benefits from scale, being the largest commercial producer in the UK, one of the largest unscripted producers in the US and one of the top three in the majority of the remaining international markets in which it operates. ITV Studios is a trusted supplier with well established relationships with key content buyers and leading creative talent in those markets. With a combined content library of over 95,000 hours, it is also one of the pre‑eminent global distributors.

The global content market is large and attractive (c.$233 billion in 2024, Source: Ampere Analysis Feb 2025, ex film studios), with all platforms requiring a diverse mix of content to succeed in a very competitive market. While overall market growth has slowed compared to historical levels, we expect to see growth in the key segments in which ITV Studios operates, including content licensing (especially digital and FAST⁴ channels), and continued demand from streaming platforms for unscripted content and premium scripted content.

ITV Studios is well-positioned to capitalise on these growth opportunities, and we are confident in our ability to continue to grow our market share, benefiting from our significant competitive advantages. This includes the creative excellence of our talent, our strong IP, our strong track record and relationships with key buyers, and our exciting creative pipeline for 2025 and beyond.

Since 2021, ITV Studios revenue on a like-for-like basis (excluding acquisitions and adjusting for FX) has grown by around 4.2% CAGR, faster than the market of around 3.4% CAGR (Source: Ampere Analysis Feb 2025 - based on the ITVS addressable market).

4. FAST = Free ad-supported streaming TV

Expand Studios

ITV Studios Strategy

ITV Studios' ambition is to be a leading force in the creation and ownership of intellectual property (IP), global content production and distribution. We are achieving this by focusing on our four strategic priorities to drive revenue and profit growth:

1. Growing our scripted business to meet the growth in global demand

2. Growing our global formats business to maximise the monetisation of high‑value formats

3. Diversifying our customer base to capture the growth in content spend from local and global streaming platforms

4. All of which is underpinned by our ability to attract and retain leading creative talent.

Each priority is underpinned by a KPI target for 2026, which reflects the key drivers of growth and value. See the Strategy section within the CEO Report for more details on our KPIs, why they are important, and how they will enable us to deliver total organic revenue growth of 5% on average per annum over the five years from 2021 to 2026 - ahead of the market, at an adjusted EBITA margin of 13% to 15%.

Growing our scripted business

Scripted content plays a key role in attracting and retaining viewers and subscribers. This, together with the increase in the number of streaming platforms, has led to a rise in original scripted commissions in the UK, US, Australia and Europe in recent years. With our global production presence and a strong track record for delivering high-quality scripted content, ITV Studios is well-positioned to cater to this demand, and importantly grow our share of the market.

ITV has a portfolio of scripted labels in the UK and internationally, which creates and produces high-quality content with global appeal for both FTA and streaming platforms.

Our Global Partnerships business also invests in the funding of scripted content produced by ITV Studios and selective third parties.

We continue to see good momentum in our scripted pipeline into 2025 and beyond, with several scripted titles that performed well on their respective platforms being recommissioned. This includes: Rivals for Disney+, One Piece S2 and Suburra for Netflix, After The Flood for ITV and Ludwig for the BBC.

In 2024, ITV Studios' high‑end scripted hours decreased by 6% year-on-year to 296 hours (2023: 316 hours), impacted by strong comparatives from the phasing of high-value scripted deliveries year-on-year, particularly to streaming platforms in the UK and US, as well as the US writers' and actors' strikes. Scripted deliveries of titles in 2023 such as Fool Me Once, Rivals, Franklin and Suburra, were partly offset by 2024 deliveries such as Lazarus, Sanctuary and The Better Sister.

Growing our Global Formats business

Unscripted content also remains important to ITV Studios. Through our Global Partnerships business, we monetise our portfolio of some of the world's most successful travelling entertainment formats, as well as maximise commercial opportunities from our brands. We are focused on driving growth across our unscripted offering by monetising our existing high‑value formats effectively, as well as supporting the creation of new global formats.

Our portfolio of world‑class brands includes our established formats such as The Voice (one of the most successful unscripted format brands in the world), Love Island, The Chase, and I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! These formats and spin-offs continue to sell in new territories, and attract mass audiences for our clients. They are highly sought after by both traditional broadcasters and streaming platforms, offering cost-effective content with a proven track record of audience success. We also have several new formats with the potential to be global hits. These include I Kissed A Boy/Girl; Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters, A Party to Die For, and Celebrity Sabotage.

During the year, across our Global Partnerships business, we sold 65 unique formats internationally (2023: 63), 20 of which were sold to three or more countries (2023: 19). 

Further diversifying our customer base

Demand from streaming platforms for unscripted content and premium scripted content presents a significant opportunity for ITV Studios to further diversify its customer base, and continue to grow its overall market share. Over the last few years, ITV has grown its market share from streaming platforms, who we have built strong relationships with. Since 2021, and despite the decline in revenue in 2024, ITV Studios has grown its scripted and unscripted revenues from streaming platforms by 26% CAGR and 45% CAGR respectively, which is ahead of market growth of around 11% for both genres (Source: Ampere Analysis ex. film studios - Feb 2025).

In 2024, the percentage of ITV Studios total revenues from streaming platforms decreased by seven percentage points to 25% (2023: 32%). This was impacted by the US actors' and writers' strikes, and strong comparatives from the delivery of high-value scripted and unscripted titles in 2023, particularly in the UK and US. This included Franklin, Physical and Big Beasts for Apple TV+, Fool Me Once for Netflix, and Fifteen Love for Amazon Prime Video. Offsetting some of this year-on-year decline were deliveries in 2024 of scripted and unscripted titles including:  Queer Eye, Missing You and Love Is Blind France all for Netflix, The Better Sister and Lazarus for Amazon Prime Video and Virgin Island for Hulu.

ITV Studios has a strong creative pipeline of scripted and unscripted titles for streaming platforms in 2025 and beyond, reflecting the trust they have in our creativity and the strength of our ideas. Future titles include: Squid Game: The Challenge S2, Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark, and Run Away all for Netflix; The Devil's Hour for Amazon Prime Video and Love Island Games USA for Peacock.

2024 PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

One of Netflix's most streamed titles ever Fool Me Once		Biggest global launch for an Italian original ever Citadel Diana | Amazon Prime Video
#1 Franchise of the year The Voice		The BBC's biggest new scripted title of 2024 Ludwig
#1 Reality series in the US across all streaming platforms Season 6 Love Island USA | Peacock		Disney+'s breakout hit Rivals

 

Digital Studio - Zoo 55

Our Global Partnerships business focuses on leveraging our extensive content library of 95,000+ hours, and maximising the value of ITV Studios IP. In early 2025, ITV Studios launched a new digital content label, Zoo 55, to drive high-margin growth from the global digital distribution market, as we distribute content to more platforms and audiences globally.  This is a growing area of the content market, with the global online video advertising market expected to grow by nearly 50% by 2029.

Zoo 55 will encapsulate our existing portfolio of 160+ owned and operated social video channels (e.g. YouTube, Meta and TikTok), which had over 25 billion views in 2024, 100+ ad-supported channels, and 20 branded and thematic FAST channels (e.g., Pluto and Roku) in 18 territories. We also have 18 active mobile games (e.g. Love Island and The Chase) where we license our IP to third-party games producers.

Zoo 55 is also using digital innovation and AI to deliver data-backed content creation and automated clipping.

Zoo 55 delivered around £60 million of high margin digital revenue in 2024, up c.30% year on year, and we expect to double this by the end of 2027, as we launch more channels and games in more territories.

Attracting and retaining leading talent

A key part of ITV Studios' investment strategy and its overall success is its ability to attract and retain the best creative talent. ITV Studios offers talent a unique combination of creative independence, an entrepreneurial culture, a label structure, and the resources of a global studio business. This includes access to ITV Studios' global distribution network, and in the UK, the benefit of being part of a vertically integrated producer broadcaster and streamer.

ITV has successfully integrated its new labels, many of which were established through recent talent deals, delivering an impressive slate of programmes with many more commissions in development. Recent and upcoming include: Virgin Island, a co-production between ITV America and Plimsoll Productions in the UK; Fool Me Once, After The Flood and Run Away from Quay Street Productions; as well as Rivals from Happy Prince, and 113 from Windlight Pictures in Germany. This strong pipeline demonstrates ITV Studios' commitment and success in nurturing and leveraging top creative talent to produce engaging, high-quality content.

We continuously manage our portfolio of labels to strengthen our creativity. During the year, we acquired the UK-based scripted independent studios, Hartswood Films, producer of Sherlock. We also acquired a majority stake in UK scripted producer Eagle Eye Drama, the producer of Professor T and Hotel Portofino. As part of the deal, ITV Studios also acquired a majority stake in Belgium-based production company Happy Duck Films, the production services partner on Eagle Eye's slate.

In the US, ITV Studios sold back its minority shareholding in Blumhouse TV to Blumhouse Holdings. Blumhouse and ITV America continue their unscripted partnership delivering the series Worst Roommate Ever, which achieved success on Netflix and has secured a series spin-off.

ITV Studios financial performance

Twelve months to 31 December	2024 £m	2023 £m	Change £m	Change %	Organic Change1 %
ITV Studios UK2	868	962	(94)	(10)	(12)
ITV Studios US	391	395	(4)	(1)	2
ITV Studios International	380	445	(65)	(15)	(10)
Global Partnerships	399	368	31	8	10
Total ITV Studios revenue2	2,038	2,170	(132)	(6)	(5)
Total ITV Studios costs	(1,739)	(1,884)	145	8	7
Total ITV Studios adjusted EBITA3	299	286	13	5	5
ITV Studios adjusted EBITA margin	14.7%	13.2%	-	1.5% pts	-

1.  The organic change assumes exchange rates remain consistent with the comparative period and removes the impact of acquisitions in the current or comparative period

2.  Excluding the revenue benefit from the transfer of ITV Sports Production from M&E, effective from 1 January 2024, total ITV Studios revenue was down 9% and ITV Studios UK                      revenue was down 15%

3.  ITV Studios adjusted EBITA also includes a £13 million impact from the change in legislation on AVEC. Excluding the impact of AVEC, ITV Studios adjusted EBITA was flat year-on-year with a 14% margin. Refer to Alternative Performance Measures for key adjustments to EBITA and adjusted EBITA

Twelve months to 31 December	2024 £m	2023 £m	Change £m	Change %
Internal revenue	646	629	17	3
External revenue	1,392	1,541	(149)	(10)
Total ITV Studios revenue	2,038	2,170	(132)	(6)

 

Twelve months to 31 December	2024 £m	2023 £m	Change £m	Change %
Scripted4	621	802	(181)	(23)
Unscripted	1,054	1,057	(3)	-
Core ITV5 and Other	363	311	52	17
Total ITV Studios revenue	2,038	2,170	(132)	(6)

 

ITV Studios performed well, despite the expected difficult market backdrop in 2024. Total ITV Studios revenue was down 6% due to the expected impact from the 2023 US writers' and actors' strikes, a softer market from FTA broadcasters, and strong comparatives from the phasing of deliveries year-on-year.

Total ITV Studios revenue includes a £55 million revenue benefit from the transfer of ITV sports production from M&E in 2024, of which £53 million is eliminated in intersegment revenue. This transfer means all production labels are now within ITV Studios, and it creates production and digital opportunities, enabling Zoo 55 to leverage the sports archive.

Internal revenue was up 3%, which includes the benefit of the transfer of ITV sports production from M&E. Total Studios external revenue was down 10%.

Total organic revenue at constant currency was down 5%, adjusting for a £30 million unfavourable foreign exchange movement and £20 million of acquisitions and disposals.

Reflecting our presence in key global production markets, 59% of ITV Studios revenue was generated outside the UK (2023: 58%).

ITV Studios adjusted EBITA (including AVEC)3 was up 5%, with an adjusted EBITA margin of 14.7%, reflecting an increase in the mix of higher-margin catalogue sales and the actions we have taken on cost. During 2024, £25 million of permanent cost savings were delivered relating to production efficiencies, permanent reductions in discretionary spend, and organisational redesign savings.

There was a £5 million unfavourable impact from foreign exchange on adjusted EBITA in the year.

We continue to look at ways to drive efficiencies and improve margins over the medium term. This includes rationalising our property footprint, using technology and data to drive cost and revenue efficiencies, utilising our production hubs for our key global formats, taking further steps to digitise our production processes, as well as using remote editing more routinely, and the operational use of AI to optimise production processes where possible. We remain committed to our adjusted EBITA margin guidance of 13% to 15%.

ITV Studios UK

ITV Studios UK produces a diverse range of new and established scripted and unscripted titles for global streaming platforms and FTA broadcasters. 

In 2024, ITV Studios UK saw a decline in revenue of 10% to £868 million 2 (2023: £962 million). Excluding acquisitions made during the year, ITV Studios revenue was down 12% at £848 million. The decline was driven by strong comparatives from the phasing of a number of high-value deliveries in 2023. This included Fool Me Once and Squid Game: The Challenge for Netflix, Vigil for the BBC, The Stolen Girl and Rivals for Disney+ and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! South Africa for ITV.

Offsetting some of this decline in 2024 were deliveries including Code of Silence and Until I Kill You for ITV, Missing You for Netflix, Lazarus for Amazon, Ludwig for the BBC and Sanctuary for AMC.

ITV Studios US

ITV Studios US provides scripted and unscripted content to all the major networks and cable channels in the US, along with every major streaming platform.

During the year, ITV Studios US total revenue declined by only 1% to £391 million (2023: £395 million), and was up 2% to £402 million, when adjusted for the unfavourable foreign exchange impact. This was in spite of the impact of the 2023 US writers' and actors' strikes, which delayed around £80 million of revenue from 2024 to 2025. ITV America (unscripted) had a strong performance in the year, with the delivery of shows such as The Voice for NBC, Love Island for Peacock, Hell's Kitchen for Fox, and Worst Roommate Ever for Netflix. This was combined with the delivery of Snowpiercer for AMC and The Better Sister for Amazon Prime Video by ITV Studios America (scripted).

Overall, ITV Studios America revenue declined, reflecting delayed productions from the impact of the strikes and the phasing of large, unrepeated scripted deliveries year-on-year, including Franklin and Physical for Apple TV+ and Ten Year Old Tom for Max.

   

 

4.                     Includes high-end scripted and other scripted revenues

5.                     Core ITV includes the soaps and Daytime shows produced by ITV Studios for ITV1

ITV Studios International

ITV Studios International produces original scripted and unscripted content across our non-UK and non-US production bases.

Growing our International scripted business allows us to benefit from the demand for locally produced content with global appeal, and we have scripted projects in production and development with many global and local streaming platforms.

Revenue within ITV Studios International decreased by 15% to £380 million in 2024 (2023: £445 million), and by 10% to £400 million when adjusted for acquisitions and disposals and the unfavourable impact of foreign currency. Deliveries in 2024 included ACAB in Italy, Inganno (the Italian adaptation of Gold Digger from the UK), My Kitchen Rules Australia and Scared of the Dark in Germany, based on the UK format. This was offset by fewer deliveries across the portfolio year-on-year, due to lower demand from free-to-air broadcasters in Europe.

Global Partnerships

Global Partnerships saw strong revenue growth in 2024, up 8% year-on-year to £399 million (2023: £368 million) and 10% to £406 million when adjusted for the unfavourable impact of foreign currency.

The business benefited from growth in catalogue sales, leveraging the breadth and depth of its extensive catalogue with sales to other broadcasters and streaming platforms globally, including the renewal of multi-year deals with customers such as ITVX and BritBox International (owned by the BBC). It also benefited from the international distribution of scripted titles, such as Ludwig, Snowpiercer and After The Flood. Finished programme sales of unscripted titles including Love Island, Hell's Kitchen and The Graham Norton Show have all sold well to streaming platforms, ad-funded video on demand platforms and FAST channels globally.

Outlook

·  ITV Studios remains on track to deliver total organic revenue growth of 5% on average per annum from 2021 to 2026, ahead of the market, at a margin of 13-15%

·      In 2025 we expect to see good revenue growth, ahead of the market. Revenue, profit and margin will be weighted to H2, with the H2 margin being higher than H1, due to the weighting of cost savings and high-margin deliveries

·  The 2025 full year margin will be lower than 2024 and still within the 13-15% range. This reflects the change in sales mix, as the market recovers following the US strikes, with a lower proportion of high-margin catalogue sales, and a higher proportion of lower-margin scripted deliveries

·  We have very strong creative output and an exciting pipeline of productions for 2025 and beyond. This is expected to include:

-  In the UK, Destination X for the BBC and NBC in the US, Run Away for Netflix, Rivals S2 for Disney+, and The Reluctant Traveller for Apple TV+

-  In the US, Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark and One Piece S2 for Netflix, What Drives You for Roku, and Love Island Games for Peacock

-  Internationally, Paris Police 3 for Canal+, Gomorrah Le Origine for Sky Italia, and key formats such as The Voice and Love Island delivering across multiple countries

-  Global Partnerships will see an increased pipeline of new content produced by ITV Studios, with titles including The Hack, Cold Water and Code of Silence, along with new formats Celebrity Sabotage and Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters

 

Media & Entertainment

ITV is the UK's largest commercial broadcaster and streamer, delivering unrivalled audience scale and reach. Through M&E, we make content available to viewers through ITVX - our free advertiser-funded streaming service, our free-to-air linear TV channels and our third-party partners, enabling them to watch however and wherever they choose.

M&E Strategy

ITV's M&E strategy is designed to respond to changing viewer behaviour and the evolving needs of advertisers. It is based on two strategic pillars: Supercharge Streaming and Optimise Broadcast.

Across ITVX and our linear TV channels, ITV M&E offers viewers unparalleled choice in how and when they watch, combined with a strong reputation for brilliant content suited to British audiences.

This has led to ITV M&E being a commercial leader in scale and reach, with a 22% share of commercial big screen viewing, bigger than Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ combined (Source: BARB, Adults 16+), and a weekly reach of nearly 40 million across linear TV and ITVX. This is an invaluable proposition for advertisers, providing them with a unique combination of mass reach, targeted advertising at scale, and commercial and creative partnerships in a brand-safe and reliably measured environment.

Our strategic pillars have KPIs and 2026 targets, which measure the key drivers of growth and value. See the Strategy section within the CEO Statement for more details on these KPIs, why they are important, and how they will enable us to grow digital revenues to at least £750 million by 2026, as well as drive non-digital revenues.

Supercharge Streaming

Growing and enhancing our streaming proposition, ITVX

ITVX continued to perform very strongly during 2024. It:

·  Attracted more users - Monthly active users (MAUs) increased by 14% to 14.3 million year-on-year (2023: 12.5 million)

·  Increased viewing - Total streaming hours grew by 12% to 1,686 million (2023: 1,506 million⁶)

·  Attracted harder-to-reach audiences - Streaming hours amongst the 25-54 demographic increased by 22%, and among men increased by 26%. Over 50% of ITVX's audience is under 55, compared to 33% for total television

·  Increased engagement and content discovery - We have seen the power of our key programmes bringing viewers to ITVX, who then go on to watch other content. For example, 77% of those Love Island viewers and 61% of Euro 2024 viewers went on to watch additional content on ITVX

This increased reach and viewing of ITVX, provide advertisers with valuable addressable and scaled audiences, in a brand-safe and measured environment. Our robust data and analytics capabilities enable us to offer high-value, highly targeted inventory and this contributed to a 15% increase in digital advertising revenue, and helped drive 12% growth in digital revenues year-on-year.

In 2024, incremental digital revenues exceeded ITVX incremental costs, two years earlier than expected. By the end of 2025, will have recouped the cumulative incremental investment in ITVX, much earlier than anticipated. We have grown digital revenues in line with our plan, with lower investment in content and technology than originally planned.

This was achieved by optimising spend through having one content budget across linear TV and streaming, enabling us to reach audiences more efficiently, wherever they choose to watch. We reduced the number of ITVX exclusives, and tested different windowing and release patterns to maximise viewing across both linear TV and streaming. We also acquired more content and boxsets for ITVX, which deliver a high volume of hours at a lower cost. Contract renegotiations and the rationalisation of technology partners have led to efficiency gains and reduced costs over time.

To sustain and build on ITVX's performance, we will focus our ITVX investment, which is fully embedded in our cost base, on our key value drivers - content, marketing, distribution, product and monetisation. Data is key to optimising these. We have over 40 million registered users, one of the largest first-party data sets in the UK. Data helps improve our commissioning decisions, maximise the effectiveness of marketing, enhance our distribution and prioritise our product developments. In addition, augmenting our scaled data sets with other first-party data sets has allowed us to deliver targeted advertising at scale. Refer to our recent ITVX webinar for further insight on how we use data to enhance our ITVX key value drivers, available at www.itvplc.com/investors/presentations-and-events/2024.

We have focused our efforts on attracting 25 to 54-year-old viewers to ITVX, as they present the biggest growth and advertising opportunities, with over 26 million in the UK. This age group increasingly turns to streaming first, with a strong preference for Reality, Sport, Drama and Entertainment - genres that closely align with ITV's strengths. They are also commercially valuable, enhancing our monetisation potential.

Content

There are over 27,000 hours of content available on ITVX (including over 5,000 hours exclusively on the premium ad-free tier), curated to attract and retain commercially valuable audiences. This includes live and on-demand content from our five linear TV channels, FAST channels, exclusive ITVX content (including spin-off shows from our linear TV channels, live sport, comedy, true crime and US box sets), ITVX Kids, and over 250 films, creating one of the UK's largest free film libraries.

Since ITVX's launch in 2022, we have dramatically improved the content offering, constantly testing, learning and adapting our content proposition and windowing strategy alongside our linear TV channels, using our data to optimise our content spend and viewing. 

2024 PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

ITV's biggest new drama in over 20 years Mr Bates vs The Post Office		UK's biggest entertainment show I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Biggest peak audience on any channel England vs Netherlands Euros semi-final		UK's biggest soap Coronation Street
UK's biggest quiz show on TV The 1% Club		UK's biggest daytime show The Chase

 

ITVX News is an integral part of ITVX and an important driver of viewing, with News streaming hours up 34% year-on-year. ITVX News has proved valuable in delivering public service content to broader audiences, and has recently been named the most influential voice in UK journalism on TikTok.

In 2024, ITVX benefitted from the strong linear TV schedule of drama, sport, entertainment and reality along with a number of Hollywood film franchises and US boxsets, which contributed to the strong growth in viewing metrics during the year.

ITVX's content strategy over the next two years will focus on increasing viewing through a regular cadence of new content, improving viewer retention through the windowing of our new drama releases and our deep and broad content catalogue, as well as optimising scheduling to increase reach, delivering content to viewers wherever and however they choose to watch.

6. In 2023, total streaming hours were reported as 1,505 million hours, which included some estimates from third-party data providers. This figure has since been updated to reflect the final data.

Marketing

Marketing is an important tool to attract more commercially valuable viewers and getting them to engage with ITVX for longer.

We increased our marketing investment by around £15 million in 2024 to drive both streaming and linear viewing.

During the year, we focused our marketing investment on ITVX brand campaigns and around our high-profile, flagship programmes, while enhancing digital and reactive marketing to promote shows gaining traction through news or social media trends. With improved data capabilities and using generative AI tools, we now target viewers more effectively - especially across social media channels where we have reduced our cost per acquisition by 70%. We also launched ITV Insiders, collaborating with over 120 top UK digital influencers to promote our shows. These efforts have boosted our spontaneous consideration - which measures how many viewers, unprompted, consider ITVX as a viewing destination. We are the only broadcaster to achieve double-digit growth, while some key streaming competitors have declined.

In 2025 we will refresh our brand to attract more 25 to 54-year-old viewers, and continue investing in marketing to increase awareness and engagement of the service. We will also focus on the measurement and effectiveness of our marketing investment, using third-party econometric modelling, to ensure we optimise the efficiency of our spend, and maximise our return on investment.

Distribution

ITVX is available in nearly all UK homes through broad distribution including Sky Q, PlayStation 4 and 5, Apple Vision Pro and Freely - a new TV streaming service which combines live TV and on-demand services of the FTA broadcasters.

We partner with third-party platforms to drive the prominence and discoverability of ITV content with improved data integration. Making it easier for viewers to find and access our content on other platforms plays a key role in driving additional viewing to ITVX. For example, one of our top dramas being supported editorially by Sky led to a 70% increase in viewing performance versus other comparable dramas.

There remains an opportunity for further integration with third-party platforms as we look to introduce new continue-watching features on these platforms, and embed more of our content to drive viewer growth.

Product

In 2024, we focused on enhancing the user journey and personalisation on ITVX to keep viewers engaged for longer. We integrated an industry-leading recommendations engine which drove over 20 million incremental streaming hours since implementation. 

Building on this momentum, in 2025, we will leverage our extensive viewing data to further refine the personalisation and recommendations offering, to drive even greater growth in viewing and retention.

Monetisation

To increase the monetisation of our inventory on ITVX, during 2024, we introduced Pause Ads, which seamlessly plays static ads when a user pauses content; on our FAST channels, we rolled out ad replacement to almost 80% of users; and we also launched linear addressable advertising on YouView and Virgin Media. We were also the first UK broadcaster to introduce subtitles on adverts, something that is extremely important to our advertising clients.

In 2025, we will continue to innovate for our advertisers creating more monetisable digital inventory.  We will launch digital ad insertion on simulcast viewing for our family of channels⁷ and linear addressable on Sky Glass and Sky Stream.

ITVX Premium

ITVX Premium offers users the opportunity to enjoy all ITVX programming ad-free, in addition to exclusive content and access to BritBox UK (content from the ITV and BBC libraries).

As previously announced, during 2024 we simplified our ITVX Premium offering by closing the BritBox UK service on Amazon Prime Video Channels along with the BritBox UK standalone app. This has allowed us to improve the overall user experience for those subscribers who migrated to ITVX Premium. The actions we have taken have had a short-term impact on subscriptions and our subscription revenue. At 31 December 2024, UK streaming subscriptions declined to 1.0 million from 1.3 million at 31 December 2023.

Since ITVX's launch, our priority has been the ad-funded service to deliver the best return and drive digital revenues. While this will continue, we will also focus on driving profitable subscription revenue growth by minimising churn and maximising value from new and existing subscribers.

Optimise Broadcast

Continuing to deliver unrivalled audiences with high‑quality programming

We operate the largest family of free‑to‑air commercial television channels in the UK. These channels provide unparalleled audience scale and reach, as well as targeted demographics demanded by advertisers. Despite the growth in streaming viewing, linear TV remains important for both our viewers and advertisers.

To optimise Broadcast and maintain our USP of delivering mass audiences for advertisers, we continue to invest in live content, such as sports and large entertainment shows, as well as drama, factual and news. In 2024, we invested £1.268 billion in our content budget across all our linear TV channels and ITVX in order to drive these mass audiences on our linear TV channels, and live and on demand viewing on ITVX.  We saw good performances from programmes such as Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which was the UK's biggest drama in 2024, I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, which was the UK's biggest entertainment show, and England vs Netherlands Euros semi-final, the biggest peak audience on any channel.

We have maintained our significant share of the top 1,000 commercial broadcast TV programmes, delivering 92% in 2024 (2023: 91%). Our share of commercial viewing was 32.2% (2023: 32.6%) and we continue to have the largest share of commercial viewing versus our commercial competitors.

 

 

7. Excluding ITV1

Over the last few years, linear TV audiences in the UK have gradually declined, with audiences spending an increasing amount of time on streaming platforms, both ad-funded and paid. In 2024, total ITV viewing (which includes viewing of all ITV content, across all devices) was down 6% to 12.3 billion hours⁸. Total broadcaster viewing (broadcaster viewing across all devices) declined by 2%, and total broadcaster and subscription streaming service viewing (viewing of all broadcaster and subscription streaming service content across all devices) was down 1% year-on-year (Source: BARB). ITV's decline was greater than the market, due to a stronger viewing performance year on year from other broadcasters, who saw an increase in the volume of sport in their schedule. This included the Paralympics on Channel 4 and the Olympics on the BBC which significantly boosted their viewing hours.

ITV has prioritised its content investment on driving valuable mass commercial audiences and digital viewing, this has impacted total viewing to our off-peak linear TV schedule.

We have an exciting schedule for 2025 to engage, inform and entertain our audiences. This includes new and returning entertainment and reality programmes such as Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters (made by ITV Studios) and The Fortune Hotel, new and returning dramas including Code of Silence and Unforgotten, along with sporting events including the women's Euros, the FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

Strong linear and online advertising proposition

While the advertising market is becoming more competitive, ITV is in a good position to be able to compete for advertising in a long-term growing advertising market with its unique combination of mass reach, targeted advertising and commercial and creative partnerships. ITV has deep relationships with agencies and advertisers; provides brand-safe and measured advertising and has a strong track record of commissioning and producing content which appeals to UK audiences.

Mass reach

As the viewing and advertising landscape becomes increasingly fragmented, the mass scale and reach offered by television, and particularly ITV, becomes even more valuable to advertisers. To support this, we have built, and continue to invest in, a range of measurement tools focused on measuring and demonstrating the outcome and effectiveness of advertising, which is key to growing our advertising revenues. Additionally, we have recently partnered with Sky and Channel 4 to launch a pilot joint measurement panel, called Lantern, aimed at tracking the short-term impact of TV advertising on sales. Recent research⁹ confirms that TV advertising remains the most effective advertising channel for brands, with the return on investment being 1.5x higher than digital.

With global streaming platforms entering the advertising market and introducing ad-supported tiers to their subscription plans, ITV's USP as the largest commercial public service broadcaster in the UK remains incredibly important and the advertising proposition ITV offers clients is unparalleled, and something that no streamer can match.

Targeted advertising - Planet V

Planet V is ITV's wholly owned programmatic addressable advertising platform. It is a self-service platform allowing agencies and advertisers to seamlessly and cost-effectively buy highly targeted video advertising on ITVX. Planet V utilises ITV's extensive data assets and capabilities to provide compelling advertising products for advertisers, which it augmented with other first-party data sets. Being wholly owned ensures that all the returns generated by the platform go directly to ITV without any value leakage through third-party commissions.

The platform is used by over 2,000 users in the UK and offers agencies and advertisers access to over 20,000 data-targeting options to create sophisticated audience segments. Advertisers can also incorporate their own first-party data in a GDPR-compliant environment using our data provider, InfoSum (an identity infrastructure provider) and monitor their campaigns through a custom‑built user interface. We are able to drive higher-value CPMs through this increasingly sophisticated and valuable ad inventory.

With the expansion of ITVX's online inventory and reach, ITV is well positioned to meet the increasing demand for targeted advertising. Planet V has attracted over 1,000 new advertisers to ITV since its launch, delivered double-digit growth in our CPMs and we have booked nearly £1.5 billion in revenue through the platform.

Planet V provides access to our growing range of innovative addressable products (ITV Ad Labs Products). This includes:

·  Automated Contextual Targeting, which is an AI-powered solution to analyse scenes in our shows to identify the most perfect content environment for advertisers to sit adjacent to

·  Retail Match (previously Matchmaker), which securely matches ITV's existing registered first-party audience, with profiles from Boots' Advantage Card and Tesco's Dunnhumby Clubcard databases, creating category shopper audience segments for targeting in ITVX (e.g. ice cream buyers)

·  Proximity Shopper, which identifies optimal postcodes to target your ITVX advertising using Circana sales data from all major supermarkets, convenience stores and service stations. Advertisers can utilise a range of variables to optimise their campaign, including brand and competitor sales, targeting the areas with the greatest opportunity.

Commercial and creative partnerships

ITV's Commercial team delivers strategic commercial and creative partnerships to advertisers, who want to use ITV's unrivalled scale, reach and targeting capabilities to establish and grow their own brands. This includes product placement, and ad‑funded programming that leverage the strength of our programme brands to help advertisers connect with audiences in unique ways. As a vertically integrated producer broadcaster and streamer, we have the advantage of owning the IP of programming, and having editorial, commercial, creative, and production teams working together, creating valuable opportunities for advertisers.

Advertising partnerships

In Q4 2024, ITV entered into a new distribution and commercial partnership with YouTube, bringing hundreds more hours of long and short-form ITV content to the platform. This is aligned with our strategy to maximise reach and offer viewers greater choice, ensuring our content is accessible to all audiences wherever they choose to watch. ITV Studios' Zoo 55 will manage the content on these channels (refer to the earlier ITV Studios section for further details).

 

 

8. In 2024, total ITV viewing was measured exclusively using BARB data. Previously, this data was not available and total ITV viewing was measured using a combination of BARB data and ITV's internal data. BARB data for total ITV viewing has now been made available for 2023 and 2022. The 2023 base has been restated to 13.0 billion hours versus 13.1 billion hours previously reported. 2022 is 13.6 billion hours versus 13.8 billion hours previously reported.

9. Profitability 2: The New Business Case for Advertisers

ITV Commercial will sell advertising around ITV's content on YouTube and has launched a dedicated YouTube sales team. For advertisers this offers the opportunity to engage with ITV's unparalleled premium brand safe content on YouTube and for ITV this increases our addressable market. 

To date on YouTube, ITV Commercial has:

·  Extended our reach to key valuable demographics with younger and more male audiences

·  Attracted new to TV advertisers

·  Secured budgets that would have otherwise been invested directly with YouTube

We are also developing opportunities beyond advertising. Using our brand, IP, marketing capabilities, first-party data, talent, and partnerships, we see opportunities to drive engagement and profitable revenue growth. This includes accelerating our strategy within our Interactive business by further developing ITV Win as a premium destination for competitions and gaming, and Kerching, a consumer-facing affiliate marketing brand in partnership with Kindred, which we launched last year, designed to save online shoppers money.

Refer to our recent ITV Commercial webinar for further insight on our commercial proposition, available at: www.itvplc.com/investors/presentations-and-events/2024.

M&E financial performance 

Twelve months to 31 December	2024 £m	2023 £m	Change £m	Change %
Total advertising revenue	1,820	1,778	42	2
Subscription revenue	48	59	(11)	(19)
SDN	43	48	(5)	(10)
Partnerships and other revenue	191	205	(14)	(7)
M&E non-advertising revenue	282	312	(30)	(10)
Total M&E revenue	2,102	2,090	12	1
Content costs	(1,268)	(1,293)	25	2
Variable costs	(153)	(153)	-	-
M&E infrastructure and overheads	(431)	(439)	8	2
Total M&E costs	(1,852)	(1,885)	33	2
Total M&E adjusted EBITA10	250	205	45	22
Total adjusted EBITA margin	11.9%	9.8%	-	2.1% pts

 

Twelve months to 31 December	2024 £m	2023 £m	Change £m	Change %
Digital advertising revenue11	482	420	62	15
Subscription revenue	48	59	(11)	(19)
Other	26	19	7	37
Total digital revenue	556	498	58	12

 

Total M&E revenue was up 1% in 2024 with total advertising revenue (TAR) up 2% and broadly in line with expectations. Digital revenue was up 12% in the year to £556 million (2023: £498 million). Within this, digital advertising revenue saw strong growth, up 15% year-on-year. M&E non-advertising revenues were down 10%, driven by the expected decline in subscription and partnership revenues, as we improved the viewer proposition and monetisation of ITVX. Further detail on the year-on-year movement in revenue is detailed below.

Total M&E costs were down 2% in 2024.  Within this, content costs were down 2%, as we have optimised our spend and windowing strategy across linear TV and ITVX with one content budget. 

Variable costs were flat year-on-year, with the planned increase in marketing and an increase in our variable costs of streaming, offset by cost savings.

M&E infrastructure and overhead costs decreased by 2%, with staff and linear supply chain inflation and investments in our Commercial outcome proposition, being more than offset by the delivery of permanent cost savings. Across M&E, we delivered £35 million of savings which relate to operational efficiencies associated with our transponders, organisational redesign and a reduction in discretionary spend.

As a result of the revenue growth and reduction in costs, M&E adjusted EBITA grew 22% and the margin increased from 9.8% to 11.9%.

 

 

10. Refer to APMs for key adjustments to EBITA and adjusted EBITA

11. Digital advertising revenue (a component of digital revenue) now includes previously omitted revenue streams such as commission from STV for ITV selling their video-on-demand inventory and social media advertising revenue, which qualify under the definition. The prior years have been restated to reflect the change in categorisation. Given the nature of digital revenue it will evolve over time. 2023 digital advertising revenue was previously reported as £415 million and digital revenue was reported as £490 million.

 

 

 

Total advertising revenue (TAR)

TAR was up 3% in Q1 and up 17% in Q2 with strong advertiser demand for the Euros. Q3 was flat and Q4 was down 7%, impacted by the 2023 Rugby World Cup comparative, which gave ITV1 and ITVX their biggest audiences of the year. In addition, Q4 2024 advertising bookings were impacted by the uncertainty in the lead-up to and post the UK budget.

Most TAR categories were up year-on-year.  FMCG-related categories were up, with Household Stores up 32% and Food up 5%. Entertainment and Leisure was up 13% and within that, gambling was up 22% with increased spend around the Euros. Retail was up 15%, with increased spend from the supermarkets, which was up 11%, and Cars grew by 7% with increased spend by electric vehicle brands.

Categories which saw a decrease in spend year-on-year include Telecommunications, down 28% with lower spend from some mobile operators. Finance was down 3% with a decline in spend from some insurance companies and retail banks. After seeing annual growth in advertising spend since the COVID-19 pandemic, Airlines and Travel was down 4% year-on-year. E-commerce companies, excluding gambling, decreased 8% in the year with the largest declines from online holiday companies.

Subscription revenue

Subscription revenue is generated directly from the premium tier of ITVX, and prior to their closure in 2024, revenue also came from the standalone BritBox UK app, and BritBox UK and ITV catch-up services on Amazon Prime Video Channels.

We took the decision to close these services to simplify the paid streaming proposition for customers, which impacted our subscription revenue in 2024, decreasing by 19% to £48 million (2023: £59 million).

SDN

SDN generates revenue by licensing multiplex capacity to broadcast channels, radio stations and data providers on digital terrestrial television (DTT) or Freeview. SDN customers include ITV and third parties. SDN's current multiplex licence has been renewed until 2034.

In 2024, external revenue (non-ITV) declined by 10% to £43 million (2023: £48 million), as expected. This decrease is primarily due to long-term contracts with third parties coming to an end and being renewed at current market rates. This trend is expected to continue, with additional long-term contracts set to end during 2026.

Partnerships and other revenue

Partnerships and other revenue includes revenue from platforms, such as Sky and Virgin Media O2, competition revenue, third‑party commission, e.g. for services we provide to STV.

As expected, Partnerships and other revenues declined by 7% to £191 million (2023: £205 million), following our decision to revise our partnership agreements to enable us to deliver digital advertising to a larger proportion of ITVX viewers through Planet V. In addition, competition revenue was lower year-on-year. 2024 also included some one-off net payments from Global Partnerships for content broadcast on our channels; this is not expected to repeat at the same level in 2025.

BritBox International

On 1 March 2024, ITV announced the sale of its 50% shareholding in BritBox International to the BBC Studios for £255 million. ITV Studios will continue to receive an ongoing revenue stream from BritBox International similar to 2023 levels for the use of ITV-owned content under new extended licensing agreements.

Prior to its sale, BritBox International was ITV's joint venture with the BBC. It provided an ad‑free subscription streaming service offering the most comprehensive collection of British content available in the US, Canada, Australia, South Africa and the Nordics (made up of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway).

Outlook

·  We will continue to deliver good growth in digital viewing and revenue and remain on track to deliver at least £750 million of digital revenues by 2026

·  TAR is expected to be broadly flat year-on-year for the four months to the end of April 2025, with Q1 down around 2% year-on-year. TAR will be impacted by tough comparatives against the Euros in June/July and the introduction of tighter advertising restrictions on less healthy foods (LHF) in October 2025 

·  We expect content costs to be around £1.250 billion in 2025, down £15 million year-on-year, as we further optimise our content spend across our linear TV channels and ITVX, with lower sports costs following the men's Euros in 2024. First half content costs will be broadly flat year on year.

Alternative Performance Measures

The Annual Report and Accounts include both statutory and adjusted measures (Alternative Performance Measures or APMs), the latter of which, in management's view, reflect the underlying performance of the business and provide a more meaningful comparison of how the business is managed and measured on a day‑to‑day basis.

Our APMs and KPIs are aligned with our strategy and business divisions and together are used to measure the performance of our business and form the basis of the performance measures for remuneration. Adjusted results exclude certain items because, if included, they could distort the understanding of our performance for the period and the comparability between periods. APMs are not defined terms under IFRS and may not be comparable with similarly titled measures reported by other companies.

As adjusted results exclude certain items (such as significant legal, major restructuring and transaction items), they should not be regarded as a complete picture of the Group's financial performance. The exclusion of adjusting items may result in adjusted earnings being materially higher or lower than statutory earnings. In particular, when significant impairments, restructuring charges and legal costs are excluded, adjusted earnings will be higher than statutory earnings.

The Audit and Risk Committee has oversight of ITV's APMs and actively reviews, challenges, revises and approves the policy for classifying adjustments and exceptional items. Further detail is included in the following section.

Key adjustments for EBITA, adjusted EBITA, profit before tax and EPS

EBITA is calculated by adjusting statutory operating profit for operating exceptional items and amortisation and impairment.

Adjusted EBITA is calculated by adding back high‑end production tax credits to EBITA. Further adjustments, which include the gain/loss on the sale of non‑current assets, amortisation and impairment of assets acquired through business combinations and investments, and certain net financing costs, are made to remove their effect from adjusted profit before tax and adjusted EPS. The tax effects of all these adjustments are reflected in the adjusted tax charge. These adjustments are detailed below.

Adjusted EBITDA, which is used to calculate the Group's leverage, is calculated by adding back depreciation to adjusted EBITA.

Production tax credits

The ability to access tax credits, which are rebates based on production spend, is fundamental to our ITV Studios business across the world when assessing the viability of investment decisions, especially with regard to drama and comedy. ITV reports tax credits generated in the US and other countries (e.g., Italy, Canada and Spain) within cost of sales, whereas in the UK, tax credits claimed under the High-End TV (HETV) regime must be classified as a corporation tax item.  In 2024, following the changes to Audio-Visual Expenditure Credits (AVEC) adopted by ITV (see below), tax credits claimed under this regime are also reported within cost of sales. In our view, all tax credits relate directly to the production of programmes. Therefore, to align treatment, regardless of production location, and to reflect the way the business is managed and measured on a day‑to‑day basis, UK HETV tax credits have been recognised in adjusted EBITA. Our cash measures, including profit to cash conversion and free cashflow are also adjusted for the impact of production tax credits.

Changes to the current UK system of Creative Industry tax credits

On 29 November 2023, the UK government issued final legislation to reform the current system of Creative Industry tax credits to merge the four existing schemes (Film, High-End Television (HETV), Children's Television and Animation) into a single Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC) scheme and has reviewed the qualifying criteria. The AVEC legislation was substantively enacted on 5 February 2024 and can be claimed on expenditure incurred from 1 January 2024.

The new scheme is one of expenditure credits as opposed to corporate tax relief, requiring a change to the accounting treatment to include them within statutory operating profit rather than within the consolidated tax charge.

Under the HETV regime the tax credits are treated as a credit to the tax line which results in the Group in the UK generally having a reported effective tax rate below the OECD Pillar Two minimum tax rate of 15%. The new AVEC regime treats the credits as a taxable EBITA amount and has been designed to ensure that entities are in the same post-tax position as under the old regime.

The new AVEC regime has been utilised by ITV on production expenditure incurred in 2024 at the earliest opportunity possible. See the tax section of the Finance Review and note 2.3 for further details.

Exceptional items

These items are excluded to reflect performance in a consistent manner and in line with how the business is managed and measured on a day‑to‑day basis. They are typically material amounts related to costs, gains or losses arising from events that are not considered part of the core operations of the business, though they may cross several accounting periods. These include, but are not limited to, costs directly related to acquisition activity, costs related to major reorganisation and restructuring programmes, material onerous contracts, significant impairments, employee‑related tax provisions related to earlier financial periods (IR35) and other items such as legal settlements and non‑routine legal costs (e.g. legal costs related to items which are themselves considered to be exceptional items). We also adjust for the tax effect of these items.

See note 2.2 to the financial information for further detail.

 

 

Acquisition‑related costs

We structure our acquisitions with earnouts or put and call options, to allow part of the consideration to be based on the future performance of the business as well as to lock in and incentivise creative talent. Where consideration paid or contingent consideration payable in the future is employment‑linked, it is treated as an expense (under accounting rules) and therefore part of our statutory results. However, we exclude all consideration of this type from adjusted EBITA, adjusted profit after tax and adjusted EPS as, in our view, these items are part of the capital transaction and do not form part of the Group's core operations. The Finance Review explains this further. Acquisition‑related costs, including legal and advisory fees on completed deals or significant deals that do not complete, are also treated as an expense (under accounting rules) and therefore on a statutory basis form part of our statutory results. In our view, these items also form part of the capital transaction or are one‑off and material in nature and are therefore excluded from our adjusted measures.

Restructuring and reorganisation costs

Where there has been a material change in the organisational structure of a business area or a material initiative, these costs are highlighted and are excluded from our adjusted measures. These costs arise from significant initiatives (likely to span more than one year) to reduce the ongoing cost base and improve efficiency in the business to enable the delivery of our strategic priorities. We consider each project individually to determine whether its size and nature warrant separate treatment and disclosure.

Amortisation and impairment

Amortisation and any initial impairment of assets acquired through business combinations and investments are not included within adjusted earnings. As these costs are acquisition‑related, and in line with our treatment of other acquisition‑related costs, we consider them to be capital in nature as they do not reflect the underlying trading performance of the Group. Amortisation of software licences and development is included within our adjusted profit before tax as management consider these assets to be core to supporting the operations of the business.

Net financing costs

Net financing costs are adjusted to reflect the underlying cash cost of interest for the business, providing a more meaningful comparison of how the business is managed and funded on a day‑to‑day basis. The adjustments made remove the impact of mark‑to‑market gains or losses on swaps and foreign exchange, one‑off fees and premiums relating to the buyback of bonds, exceptional interest and other finance costs on acquisitions, imputed pension interest and other financial gains and losses that do not reflect the relevant interest cash cost to the business and are not yet realised balances.