Business
ITV plc - Q3 Trading Update
ITV plc - Q3 Trading Update.
About this update from Itv Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n RNS Number : 0516F\n ITV PLC\n 12 November 2020\n \n \n \n \n ITV plc Q3 Trading Update for the 9 months to 30 September 2020\n \n \n \n Carolyn McCall, ITV Chief Executive, said:\n \n \"We are seeing encouraging signs in both our divisions. Advertising trends are improving with Q4 forecast to be slightly up year on year and 85% of our productions in the UK and internationally that were paused as a result of COVID-19 are back in production or have been delivered. However, COVID restrictions and further national lockdowns have added production costs and are making it challenging to bring ITV Studios productions back to full capacity.\n \n \"We remain focused on executing our More Than TV strategy as we accelerate our digital transformation. We are restructuring the Broadcast business to create a new Media and Entertainment Division to better reflect and serve changing viewing habits. The restructure will also drive improvements in efficiency and reduce costs. Planet V has reached another milestone allowing media agencies to self-serve advertising campaigns. We have further improved the design and functionality of the Hub which now has 32m registered users; and BritBox is on track, with a very successful launch for Spitting Image - BritBox's first original commission.\n \n \"Looking ahead we will continue to monitor our performance very carefully against a wide range of scenarios given the ongoing uncertainty. We continue to focus on cash and costs and our balance sheet remains robust with good access to liquidity.\"\n \n \n Operational and financial performance for the nine months to 30 September 2020\n \n ● Total external revenue was down 16% at £1,860m (2019: £2,209m)\n ● Total ITV Studios revenue was down 19% at £902m (2019: £1,116m)\n ● Broadcast revenue was down 13% at £1,270m (2019: £1,464m) with ITV total advertising down 16% and online revenues up 2%\n ● ITV total viewing was up 2% with an increase in live viewing\n ● Online viewing was down 6% with no summer Love Island and fewer episodes of the soaps, although monthly active users were up 1% and dwell time was up 6%\n ● ITV Family's share of viewing (SOV) was down 4% from 23.2% to 22.2%, partly impacted by the volume of the BBC's news output during the pandemic\n \n \n Operational update\n \n ● Our production t...