ITV has reported strong growth in its OTT services in Q1 2020. Compared to the same period last year, long form online viewing hours were up 75% to 169.4 million, simulcast viewing was up 112% and reach up 40% on the company’s AVOD product, ITV Hub. ITV is also seeing “good growth for BritBox free trial starts and subscriptions”. Broadcast revenue was up 2% at £500m (2019: £489m) with ITV total advertising up 2% and online revenues up 26%.
On the negative side, however, ITV said that:
- Total external revenue was down 7% at £694m (2019: £743m)
- Total ITV Studios revenue was down 11% at £342m (2019: £385m), impacted by the phasing of deliveries and restrictions on working practices due to COVID-19. That said, “ITV Studios Global Distribution is seeing good demand for library content internationally”
- And there was a significant impact on the demand for advertising across most advertising categories, particularly from April which was down 42%
ITV is aiming to reduce overhead costs by £60m in 2020, £30m of which will be in CAPEX savings. The broadcaster’s programme budget has been cut by £100m to £1bn and around 800 staff – 15% of the total workforce – have been furloughed. A recruitment and salary freeze has also been implemented.
| Revenue for 3 months to 31 March (£m) | 2020 | 2019 | % |
| ITV Broadcast | 500 | 489 | 2 |
| ITV Studios | 342 | 385 | -11 |
| Total revenue | 842 | 874 | -4 |
| Internal supply | -148 | -131 | -13 |
| Total external revenue | 694 | 743 | -7 |
| Revenue for 3 months to 31 March (£m) | 2020 | 2019 | % |
| Total advertising revenue | 426 | 417 | 2 |
| Non-advertising revenue | 416 | 457 | -9 |
| Internal supply | -148 | -131 | -13 |
| Total external revenue | 694 | 743 | -7 |
| Broadcast KPIs for 3 months to 31 March | 2020 | 2019 | % |
| ITV Total viewing (hrs) | 4.43bn | 4.36bn | 2 |
| ITV Family Share of Viewing (SOV) | 23.60% | 24.00% | -2 |
| Long form online viewing (hrs) | 169.4m | 96.8m | 75 |
| ITV Hub registered user accounts | 32 | 28.4m | 13 |
ABOUT KAUSER KANJI
Kauser Kanji has been working in online video for 19 years, formerly at Virgin Media, ITN and NBC Universal, and founded VOD Professional in 2011. He has since completed major OTT projects for, amongst others, A+E Networks, the BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, DR (Denmark), Liberty Global, Netflix, Sony Pictures, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and UKTV. He now writes industry analyses, hosts an online debate show, OTT Question Time, as well as its in-person sister event, OTT Question Time Live.