8th May 2019 08:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - ITV PLC said Wednesday, ahead of its general meeting, that the first quarter of 2019 proceeded as expected, with overall revenue down on a decline in advertising as well as economic uncertainty.
For the three months to the end of March, the broadcaster reported total external revenue of GBP743 million, down 4% from GBP772 million the year before.
On a divisional basis, ITV Studios revenue edged up by 1% to GBP385 million from GBP382 million, with revenue at constant currency also up by 1%. However, ITV Broadcast & Online revenue fell by 7% to GBP489 million from GBP526 million.
Total advertising revenue, which includes net advertising revenue, online videos-on-demand and sponsorship, was down 7% at GBP417 million from GBP448 million the prior year.
Non-advertising revenue was down 1% at GBP457 million, from GBP460 million.
Looking ahead, ITV's first half of 2019 is expected to be hampered by lower advertising demand due to continued economic and political uncertainty, as well as the absence of the Football World Cup event.
There is also planned investments and the launching costs of BritBox, scheduled for the second half. As a result, first half advertising revenue is expected to be down 6% compared to the year before. For the first half of 2018, total advertising revenue was GBP890 million.
However, for the full-year, ITV continues to expect double digit growth in online revenue, and good organic revenue in ITV Studios.
"ITV's performance in the first three months was very much as we expected," said Chief Executive Carolyn McCall.
"ITV Studios delivered 1% growth in organic revenues. We remain confident that we will deliver good organic revenue growth in ITV Studios over the full year and have already secured over GBP120 million more revenue for 2019 than at the same time last year," McCall added.
Shares in ITV were down 2.0% at 128.96 pence each on Wednesday morning.
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