UK’s TV Giant, ITV, Blames Hollywood Strikes for Decreased Revenue

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Hollywood Strikes have been the hottest topic in the streaming industry since 2023. Although we are through the first quarter of 2024, content-maker companies such as ITV still bear its effects.

The U.K. media giant ITV released its first quarter financial report on Thursday, blaming the knock-off effects of last year's strikes as the core reason behind its decreased revenue. However, the broadcaster expects a bounceback with the Euro Football tournament to be held later this year.

ITV, one of the largest free-to-air broadcasters in the U.K., is behind huge hits like Love Island and Mr Bates vs. the Post Office. It claims the writers' and actors' strikes badly disrupted its ITV Studio division.

ITV explained that as media companies in the U.S. are still recovering from the impact of Hollywood strikes, it delayed commissioning the new projects, leading to a 16% drop in ITV Studio's revenue. The platform registered 382 million of income in the first quarter of 2024 compared to 457 million during the same time last year.

However, ITV reports a 7% drop in overall revenue, which equates to 887 ($1.10 billion) compared to last year's figure of 952 million ($1.18 billion) during the same period (January to March).

ITV Records 3% Growth in Ad Revenue

And the achievement the London-based broadcaster secured in its Q1 report was a 3% spike in ad revenue. Still, the company believes its ad revenue momentum has moved to the next quarter, and ITV expects a 12% increase in Q2. Moreover, media and entertainment revenue has also recorded a 2% spike, reaching 505 million compared to last year's figure of 495 million.

Lastly, the platform's digital ad revenue, a component of the digital revenue, has also grown by 14% due to ITVX's incredible performance. Furthermore, the broadcaster affirmed that ITVX's streaming hours increased by 16%, with the monthly active users rising.

The media firm sees the ITV Studio's total revenue flat as the full year 2024 passes. The impact of the recent year's strikes, estimated to delay around 80 million in revenue from 2024 to 2025, will be offset by the underlying ITV's growth. ITV affirmed that the second half of this year will also experience a year-on-year revenue decline despite the heavily weighted content deliveries scheduled during the same period.

It includes A.C.A.B." for Netflix, Ludwig" and Showtrial" for the B.B.C., Hells Kitchen U.S." for Fox, Lazarus" for Prime Video and The Better Sister" and Sentinelles" for O.C.S. and Canal+ and more.

Streamer Eyes on Future Growth

ITV continued by saying it now focuses on the platform's guidance and expects to deliver 40 million in cost savings this year. And to reach its 2026 KPI targets, the media firm has set its all to remain on track and make progress, ITV said.

While commenting on the plans of the broadcaster, Chief Executive Officer at ITV, Carolyn McCall, noted;

ITV continues to execute its strategy successfully. Over the full year we expect ITV Studios revenues to be broadly flat. We have a strong pipeline of programmes, good demand for our quality content as we increasingly diversify our customer base towards streamers and the phasing of deliveries is heavily weighted to the second half of the year.

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