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ITV bosses faced numerous sale rumor questions this morning but didn’t budge on the speculation, while content boss Kevin Lygo revealed only one drama is stuck in the funding limbo instigated by the American co-pro drop-off.
Reuters recently reported that ITV is in talks over merging production arm ITV Studios with RedBird IMI’s All3Media, which lit a fire under the media industry. Unsurprisingly CEO Carolyn McCall faced numerous questions during its annual results call about the rumors as the broadcaster revealed a mixed results picture including record profits for the production arm.
McCall said you would “expect a lot of speculation” due to the current state of the market and pointed out that such speculation has also followed ITV Studios rivals such as Banijay and Fremantle, although she perhaps consciously avoided mentioning All3Media.
“We won’t comment on speculation but what I would say is we will continue to build the [ITV Studios] business that has seen growth of 35%,” she added. “We’ve bought good labels and backed fantastic talent. It’s really paying off as a strategy. No comment on speculation but you can see how well the business has done.”
Fool Me Once and Rivals maker ITV Studios profits hit a record £300M ($387M) in 2024, rising 5%, although revenue dipped. ITV said this figure will improve in the second half of 2025, although margin is expected to be at the lower end due to “the change in sales mix as the market recovers following the U.S. strikes, with a lower proportion of high-margin catalogue sales, and a higher proportion of lower-margin scripted deliveries.”
Relating to the sale rumors, McCall as ever faced questions on ITV’s sticky share price, which rose to around 73p per share but only incrementally upon the publication of the results and remains stubborn, giving the company a market cap of around £2.6B.
McCall was bullish, stressing that ITV is “outperforming our market” and “if you look across Europe you won’t see us underperforming” on share price.” She pointed out that “media stocks have been under pressure for many years because of structural changes,” as investors look to other markets like global tech firms.
Asked whether the new Labour government could do anything to stimulate share price, McCall said Chancellor Rachel Reeves could take stamp duty away from selling shares, which is “unique to the UK,” and could look at issues around pension funds which would help “keep some money in the UK market.”
“There is some light touch regulation that would help buoy up the UK equity market,” said McCall. “There are things that can be done and hopefully will be done by Rachel Reeves.”
Show in funding limbo
ITV grew its drama production last year while overall UK drama production was down 24%, according to McCall.
Her claim came as the bottom falls out of the British co-pro market due to big American players pulling out, which has impacted numerous BBC dramas that are stuck in funding limbo and is understood to have also affected scripted shows at ITV and Channel 4.
Responding to a question from Deadline, ITV content boss Kevin Lygo revealed “to my knowledge there is only one drama we are waiting on for American money,” as he stressed that ITV drama operates at a lower price point than the rival BBC.
“Sometimes it is about where you’re pitching your budget and America therefore becomes more necessary [if a show is more expensive],” he added. “We make over 20 dramas a year and it hasn’t really affected us yet.”
The shift has impacted the studios side, however. ITV Studios boss Julian Bellamy said there are challenges selling UK-centric drama such as smash local hit Mr Bates vs the Post Office. He called on drama producers to be entrepreneurial and said the government could help by reforming tax credits, the latter of which has been urged by many a drama doyen of late.
On a worrying 23% drop in subscribers to the paid-for version of streamer ITVX, McCall said the focus is a “doubling down” on the AVoD platform.
“To drive a real SVoD service with lots of content separate from ITV would be expensive and we’d be ‘buying subs’,” she added. “So our decision is to keep going with subs but not have unrealistic targets. We took a conscious and deliberate decision which is that we’re not going to drive unprofitable growth in subs.”
By the end of 2025, ITV revealed it wants to have recouped its cumulative investment in ITVX, which it said would be “much earlier than anticipated.”
ITV’s results revealed it has completed its £150M savings plan a year early and will continue to make savings of £30M this year, following a period of months during which around 200 staffers were made redundant, mostly voluntarily.
“We’ve transformed ITV and will continue to do that because the pace of technological change is rapid,” said McCall. “Some of that benefits us like AI but we also have to make sure we are constantly keeping in touch with viewers’ needs and responding really well.”
