Press Release 0700 hours, 17 March 2026

STV Group plc Full Year Results to 31 December 2025

RESULTS IN LINE WITH EXPECTATIONS,

UNDERPINNED BY OPERATIONAL DISCIPLINE AND STRATEGIC DELIVERY

Key financials and operating highlights

·    Group revenue of £176.9m, down 6%

o  Total Advertising Revenue (TAR) of £89.3m, down 10%, driven by national linear

o  Studios revenue £83.0m, down 1%, a resilient performance

·    Group adjusted operating profit of £11.6m, down 44%; statutory operating profit £3.8m

o  Both divisions reported a 35% decline in adjusted operating profit

o  Group adjusted operating margin of 6.6% (2024: 11.0%)

o  Management actions taken as planned to deliver annualised cost savings totalling £8m by end FY26

·    Group net debt at lower end of guidance range, at £45.3m (2024: £38.7m)

·    Successful launch of Audio business, including STV Radio, attracting new advertisers to STV

·    STV Player achieved highest ever consumption, up 9% to 75m hours

·    Strengthened advertising proposition through pause ads and STV ADapt, with new advertiser product innovation coming in 2026

·    No final dividend proposed in respect of 2025 (2024: full year 11.3p)

Rufus Radcliffe, Chief Executive, said:

"Throughout a challenging 2025 for both of our key markets, we acted decisively to adapt the business to rapidly changing conditions, and have delivered results in line with latest guidance as well as making clear progress across our strategic pillars. We remain focused on improving financial performance in 2026 supported by tight cost discipline despite continued limited market visibility. Our new Audience division, bringing together broadcast, streaming and audio, is maximising reach and engagement, strengthening our advertising proposition and opening new commercial opportunities following the launch of STV Radio.

"STV Studios continues to deliver high‑quality, returnable IP with strong international appeal, supported by an expanded customer mix and disciplined portfolio management.

"Having taken decisive steps to re-engineer the Group's cost base in the period, this focus on tight cost discipline will remain a priority in 2026. We also believe 2026 offers reasons for optimism, including the Men's Football World Cup, new advertiser product innovation, and major new scripted and unscripted deliveries for global streamers. We believe that the transforming media landscape will continue to offer opportunities for STV."

Strategic progress:

Content

·    STV Studios continues to win commissions and deliver projects in a difficult market, with 37 new commissions and recommissions in 2025 (2024: 51):

o  Two Cities delivered series 3 of Blue Lights to BBC One; period drama 'spectacular' Amadeus launched on Sky and NOW in December

o  STV Drama delivered The Witness to Netflix, the label's first commission for a global streamer

o  New returnable unscripted series: Game of Wool (Channel 4); and Jimmy Carr's Am I The A****** (Comedy Central), both recommissioned this month

·    Studios adjusted operating margin was 4.7% (2024: 7.2%), reflecting lower format sales and margin pressure from commissioners

o  Building blocks of margin improvement remain: 33 returning series in production (2024: 37); secondary sales revenue of £7.3m (2024: £7.7m)

·    Forward production orderbook of £33m at Dec-25 (Aug-25: £40m); no cancellations notified

·    Positive start to 2026 with production underway on three drama series all delivering in 2026: Blue Lights 4 (BBC One), Army of Shadows (Channel 4), and Criminal Record 2 (Apple TV) .

Audience

·    Average monthly reach of STV/STV Player was 75% of Scots (3.5m), greater than the ad tier of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ combined

·    STV & STV Player combined still number 1 commercial destination for audiences in Scotland with 97% of top 500 commercial programme audiences across all TV channels and SVOD platforms on STV

·    STV Player achieved highest ever consumption with total viewing hours up 9% to 75m and registered Daily Active Users up 10%

·    STV Radio successfully launched as planned in Jan-26, attracting new audiences and advertisers to STV

·    Pilot brands for STV ADapt seeing strong returns with progress towards full roll-out in H2 2026 on plan

Net debt and cash management

·    Net debt of £45.3m included amounts under non-recourse production financing of £2.3m (2024: £38.7m including production financing of £9.9m)

o  Increase in net debt partly relates to loss for the year of £4m (2024: profit for the year £13.1m)

o  Leverage 2.5x (covenant max 3x); interest cover 6.1 (covenant min 4x)

·    On track to deliver annualised run rate savings of £8m by end FY26

o  £4.1m delivered across FY24/FY25

o  Actions taken to deliver balance of £3.9m in FY26; £3m from restructuring programme implemented in H2 2025

·    Accounting deficit on defined benefit pension schemes reduced to £39.2m (2024: £48.3m)

o  Flexibility obtained for contributions payable in FY26

Market Outlook

·    Advertising outlook for Q1 2026:

o  Total advertising revenue (TAR) expected to be down c.5%

o  National linear expected to be down c.7%

o  Regional linear expected to be down c.11%; regional significantly outperformed national in 2025 with 2026 decline a result of shifting spend patterns for a small number of larger advertisers

o  VOD revenue expected to be +3%

·    FIFA Men's World Cup expected to drive advertising revenue in Q2

·    First RAJAR listening figures for STV Radio expected in August

·    Studios: forward orderbook at end December 2025 of £33m

Dividend

·    Although the business continues to be cash generative, given continued pressure on operating margins and the current debt profile, the Board believes that it is prudent not to declare a dividend in respect of 2025, to preserve financial flexibility and liquidity as the business stabilises

·    The Directors understand the importance of optimising value for shareholders, and it is the Directors' intention to return to paying a dividend when it is prudent for the Group to do so

There will be a presentation for analysts on STV's Full Year Results for 2025 today, Tuesday 17 March, at 12.30pm via Zoom. Should you wish to attend this presentation, please email Angela Wilson at angela.wilson@stv.tv.

Enquiries:

STV Group plc:                  Kirstin Stevenson, Head of Communications       Tel: 07803 970 106

Camarco:                           Geoffrey Pelham-Lane, Director                             Tel: 07733 124 226

                                            Ben Woodford, Director                                           Tel: 07790 653 341

OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

STV STUDIOS

STV Studios continued its commitment to creating innovative formats with global appeal, putting UK talent in front of audiences around the world.

In 2025, the macroeconomic challenges led to a continued weakness in the UK advertising market which resulted in a further slowdown in content commissioning with fewer commissions secured year on year. In response, we ceased new development in STV Studios Entertainment and confirmed no further investment in Mighty Productions. In May we diversified our portfolio further with the addition of a minority investment in non-traditional branded content start-up, Fan Club, which has strong future growth potential. Rumpus Media and Flicker Productions both became wholly owned labels in 2025, and Pi Productions was exited.

Our three scripted labels had productive years, producing and delivering high value commissions. Majority-owned, Belfast-based Two Cities Television, won a new six-part series for Channel 4, Army of Shadows, a co-production with StudioCanal. The third series of their police drama, Blue Lights, launched on BBC One and iPlayer to critical acclaim and impressive ratings, and series four is in production for delivery in 2026. The drama won the prestigious Drama award at the BAFTA ceremony in London in May 2025 and an IFTA in February 2026. Their period drama 'spectacular' Amadeus launched on Sky and NOW in December.

STV Studios Drama completed production of their three-part series, The Witness, for Netflix which will launch in 2026. This is STV Studios' first commission for the global streamer. Tod Productions has been in production on the second series of acclaimed police thriller, Criminal Record, for Apple TV, for delivery in 2026.

Our strong stable of returning unscripted series continues to be a valuable source of income for STV Studios and has provided important repeat business throughout the year. 2025 highlights include a fifth series of The Travelling Auctioneers and the 32nd series of Antiques Road Trip for BBC One from STV Studios Factual. Warner Bros. Discovery UK & Ireland commissioned this team to produce three new series of our Auction House franchise, and the team also delivered new three-part army docuseries The Troops for BBC Scotland and iPlayer. They reimagined the antiques genre with new format, Antiques Riviera, for More4 which aired in early 2026, and their three-part series, the Beauty Queen and the Catfish for BBC Scotland attracted significant profile across the UK.

An eight series of Tuesday's Child's music quiz, The Hit List, was produced for BBC One (a format with strong international appeal); and a second series of The Fortune Hotel was shown on ITV. Glasgow based Hello Halo's Game of Wool fronted by Tom Daley launched on Channel 4 and was their most successful factual entertainment launch of 2025.

Brighton and Manchester based Crackit TV had another strong year with new commissions secured alongside production of their regular returning series. Highlights included a hard-hitting documentary series exploring crime scene cleaning in the UK and the US, Crime Scene Cleaners (Channel 4); a consumer-focused spending show Secrets of Super Cheap Shopping (Channel 4); and crime series, Social Media Monsters (Channel 4).

We currently have 4,750 hours of content in our archive across our portfolio, and we see our distributor-neutral status as a key commercial advantage in our international sales strategy. Key secondary sales highlights in 2025 included: all seven series of quiz show, Bridge of Lies, are now airing in Australia on the Seven Network; and Tuesday's Child's The Hit List has landed two regional adaptations in Spain to date, with The Fortune Hotel adapted in Sweden and Norway.

AUDIENCE

STV's Audience division is comprised of our broadcast channel, STV, our Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVoD) streaming service, STV Player, and our newly launched radio station, STV Radio.

STV and STV Player

Total viewing declined in 2025, but our Audience division continues to provide stability and reach in a rapidly changing market. Whilst we continue to hold share, like the rest of the industry we are facing significant structural shifts in viewing habits with audiences moving from linear to digital at pace. In addition, the business continued to operate against the backdrop of a weak advertising market which showed no signs of improvement through 2025.

Against that backdrop, taken together, STV and STV Player reach 75% of Scots on average each month, which is more than the ad tiers of Netflix, Prime Video and Disney combined. STV had the greatest commercial share of any broadcaster or streaming service on a TV set in 2025 (14.9%), and its 2025 peak time share was greater than the next six commercial broadcast channels combined. Our all-time share has been ahead of the ITV Network for the past eight years.

STV Player achieved its highest ever consumption in 2025, with total viewing hours of 75m, up 9% versus 2024. This jumps to +15% year on year across STV-owned platforms, with total viewing hours on those apps at a record 65m. This is impressive, particularly compared with 2024 which delivered significant audiences for the Men's EUROs. Registered Daily Active Users to STV Player were up 10% year on year, which mirrors the overall growth in consumption, and this group are watching more content than before (+25%).

I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here was our top performing show of the year and Scotland's most-watched entertainment title across all commercial channels, beating Bake Off and Gogglebox.  Across 2025, over 60m drama hours were consumed across STV and STV Player and STV's drama has outperformed all our commercial broadcaster/BVOD competitors across the year.

STV Player saw a significant +42% year on year increase in VOD soap consumption, with the 7am episode drop of Coronation Street and Emmerdale having a dramatic impact on how our audience view their favourite soaps.  The Calcutta Cup, with England playing Scotland in the Rugby Six Nations, was the most watched moment on STV in 2025 with the audience peaking at 750k, demonstrating STV's ability to bring audiences together across the country.

STV News at Six was the most watched news programme in Scotland for the 7th year in a row, winning a 30% viewing share. As viewing habits continue to shift, linear volumes are reducing and audiences to our digital news channels are increasing, with users trending towards getting their news on demand. STV news can be found on 13 online platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Google. Average monthly views (page and video) were 66m across 2025, more than double year on year. This performance reflects our continued focus on meeting audience demand for trusted news video on the platforms they choose to use - where and when they want it.

We signed 29 new STV Player content deals with 19 different distributors and producers, comprising 88 titles and more than 1000 hours of new content, complement our strong Channel 3 network offering.

We are now into the second year of our deal with Premier Sports, which combines our ad-free programming with their live sports and on-demand content, including football, rugby, and motorsports.

A key aim of this partnership is to drive new subscribers to the platform, encouraging them to engage with STV Player content. In H2 2025, subscribers spent 47% of their time watching Premier Sports content and 53% watching other STV Player programming.

Audio

Planning began in May 2025 for STV Radio. We recruited an experienced team including radio industry stalwart Graham Bryce, previously COO of Bauer Radio, as MD of the station, alongside a new operational team and high calibre line-up of presenters from across Scotland.

STV Radio launched across Scotland on 6 January on DAB, smart speakers and STV Player, and the schedule includes an eclectic mix of music from the 80s, 90s and 00s, competitions, listener chats, guests and live music performances alongside news and weather updates.

Our first RAJAR performance figures for the station are due in August, but for now the reaction from the media, listeners and advertisers has been positive with good brand awareness and c.1m views across our dedicated social channels in our first month.

Additionally, in October 2025, we launched our first podcast - The STV Football Radio Show. The show is available on YouTube, STV Player and key podcast platforms and is off to a strong start both in terms of consumption and social engagement.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Set against the backdrop of challenging advertising and commissioning markets, Group revenue fell by 6% to £176.9m (2024: £188.0m). Total advertising revenue (TAR) for the year was £89.3m (2024: £99.7m), a decrease of 10% on 2024, with the biggest impact coming through national linear advertising, which was down 16%.

Adjusted operating profit of £11.6m was down 44% on 2024, giving an adjusted operating margin of 6.6% (2024: 11.0%).  The reduction in margin was driven by the decline in TAR, lower new format sales in Studios, and inflationary pressures across the business, partly offset by cost savings. On a statutory basis, operating profit was £3.8m (2024: £13.2m).  Operating adjusting items of £7.8m were charged in the year (2024: £7.4m) with full details in note 6 to the condensed financial statements.

The Group announced a £5m cost saving programme in March 2024 and has taken the action necessary to deliver that run rate by the end of 2026 as planned. This plan was expanded in September 2025 with identification of a further £3m in cost savings, predominantly from a reduction in headcount across the organisation. Restructuring costs, being redundancy payments, of £1.7m have been recognised as adjusting items in 2025. Restructuring costs of £1.0m in the prior year were attributable to professional fees, redundancy costs and loss on disposal of assets.

Loss before tax was £5.9m (2024: profit of £10.4m) after charging finance costs of £8.8m (2024: £7.6m). The components of finance costs were (i) interest on the Group's borrowings £3.6m (2024: £3.4m); (ii) non-cash interest on lease liabilities of £0.5m in both years; (iii) net loss on foreign exchange contracts of £0.7m (2024: gain of £0.4m); (iv) net interest on the net deficit in the Group's defined benefit pension schemes of £2.4m in both years; and (v) unwinding of the discount on put option liabilities recognised in relation to business combinations £1.6m (2024: £1.7m). Items (iv) and (v) are recognised by the Group as adjusting items.

Other losses of £0.8m (2024: gains of £4.8m) were recognised during the year (within adjusting items) in relation to accounting for acquisitions achieved in stages and revaluation to fair value of put option liabilities. Share of loss of associates of £0.1m (2024: £nil) was recognised in the year.

The Group recognised a tax credit of £1.9m in the year (2024: £2.7m), driven by high-end television tax credits receivable of £0.9m (2024: £3.9m) and deferred tax credits in relation to losses carried forward.

The resultant loss for the year was £4.0m (2024: profit of £13.1m) with a basic loss per share of 10.8p (2024: earnings per share of 23.5p). On an adjusted basis, basic EPS was 13.1p (2024: 29.0p).

At year end, the Group had net debt under its revolving credit facility ('RCF') of £43.0m (2024: £28.8m). In addition, certain subsidiaries were party to separate production financing facilities, which are non-recourse to STV, in relation to specific programmes in production. Of the total production financing facilities available of £2.4m, amounts drawn at the end of the year were £2.3m. Amounts drawn under similar facilities at the end of 2024 of £9.9m were fully repaid during the year, on delivery of the finished programme.

At the balance sheet date, the Group had a £75m RCF in place and £15m accordion, maturing in February 2028 and with a 2-year extension option available that would extend maturity to February 2030. The principal financial covenants are leverage and interest cover, which - except for the period from March 2026 to March 2027 inclusive - must be less than 3 times and more than 4 times respectively. An amendment was agreed with lenders to temporarily amend the covenant levels from March 2026 to March 2027 as the business recovers from the significant downturn in 2025.

Leverage at the end of the year was 2.5 times (2024: 1.5 times) against a covenant maximum of 3 times. Interest cover was 6.1 times (2024: 8.5 times) against a covenant minimum of 4 times.

The IAS 19 accounting deficit of the Group's defined benefit pension schemes reduced to £39.2m at the end of the year (2024: £48.3m). In September 2025, the Group agreed a revised Schedule of Contributions with the Trustees that ensures the same level of total contributions paid into the schemes over the recovery plan period but with a rephasing of amounts payable from 2026 into 2027.  The contingent cash mechanism previously in place has been paused until completion of the next triennial valuation at the earliest, with no further contingent payments required until then unless the Group and Trustees agree otherwise.

REGULATORY

Reflecting broader trends, the average audience for our linear news output is down 15% as people consume more news on digital platforms.  We are seeking approval from Ofcom to make changes to the news commitments in our licences, enabling both north and central regions to share part of STV News at 6 whilst retaining separate dedicated sections for each licence area. If approved, this will enable us to protect our regional news output, expand our digital news offering and ensure the service is sustainable for the future.

Full implementation of the 2024 Media Act will continue through 2026 and 2027, with the key provision of ensuring that PSB services have prominence on digital platforms hugely important for STV in making our services easy for viewers to find.

The Advertising (Less Healthy Food and Drinks) Regulations came into force in 2026, meaning that advertising of this kind of produce is limited to post-watershed with a total online ban for advertising of identifiable products. We participated in the Less Healthy Food consultation around the introduction of brand exemptions in 2025 and are pleased that this forms part of the final regulation.

Consolidated income statement

Year ended 31 December 2025

*Presentation in the prior year has been updated to reflect the treatment of HETV tax credits in the column for adjusting items for transparency

A reconciliation of the statutory results to the adjusted results is included at note 6. The above consolidated income statement should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes.

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income

Year ended 31 December 2025

The above consolidated statement of comprehensive income should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes.

Consolidated balance sheet

At 31 December 2025

The above consolidated balance sheet should be read in conjunction with the accompanying notes.