ITV Boss Crozier Hails Rising Revenue

Revenue has risen at ITV plc with news today of the broadcaster's Interim Management Statement for the nine months ended 30th September 2011
The data shows that total external revenues were up 4% to £1,515m (2010: £1,456m) in the first nine months and that ITV Family NAR was up 1% in Q3, up 2% in the first nine months and on track to outperform the TV advertising market in 2011.
In addition, ITV Studios external revenues went up 9% to £224m (2010: £205m) in the first nine months, driven by strong growth in the international business with bond buybacks of £80m taking the total to £264m this year.
A continued focus on cash and costs has seen net debt fall to £43m (from £188m at the start of the year) and ITV expect to be net cash positive at year end and remain cautious on the outlook for 2012 – with quarterly revenue trends likely to follow a different pattern to 2011 with tough comparatives continuing into the first quarter before easing from the second quarter onwards, helped by Euro 2012.
Adam Crozier, Chief Executive Officer of ITV, said: "Our relentless focus on delivering the Transformation Plan is now impacting positively on our results. Despite difficult economic and market conditions our revenues are up 4% to £1,515m in the first nine months of the year.
"The continued management emphasis on cash generation and cost reduction has delivered further improvements to our financial position and we are on track to be net cash positive at year end.
"This is a substantial improvement given that our net debt stood at £612m at the beginning of 2010," he said.
The new ITV Studios management team is said to be delivering ahead of expectations, fuelled by our continued investment in revitalising the creative pipeline, with particularly strong growth in our international business.
"So far this year ITVS has had 89 new commissions of which 40 are international including Prime Suspect which we have sold to 30 countries and Titanic, a major new drama for 2012 by Julian Fellowes, which has been sold to 57 countries," continued the senior executive.
"Maximising audience share in Broadcast remains a key part of our strategy.
"Our on-screen performance has been strong with ITV Family share of viewing (SOV) year-to-date up 2% year on year to 23.0%.
"ITV1 SOV is broadly flat at 15.6% and our digital channels have grown strongly with ITV2 SOV up 8% year on year, and ITV3 and ITV4 both up 10%. Online, long form video views are up by 62% in the first nine months of the year.
"Our on-screen performance in the Autumn is being driven by a strong schedule which includes the Rugby World Cup, Downton Abbey, Doc Martin, and the X-Factor, as well as The Jury and I’m a Celebrity," he continued.
"We remain cautious on the outlook for 2012 – quarterly revenue trends are likely to follow a different pattern to 2011 with tough comparatives continuing into the first quarter before easing from the second quarter onwards, helped by Euro 2012.
"We are still in the early stages of our five year Transformation Plan which we are on track to deliver, and we remain optimistic about ITV’s prospects in the medium to long term."
(BMcC/GK)