📊 𝗜𝗧𝗩 𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗳-𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲: 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻

ITV announced what I thought was a solid half-year performance yesterday. The core mission, transforming their linear business into digital, is going well and they’re well on their way to £750m digital in 2026, although growth did slow a touch in this period. Non-digital advertising was even up slightly (£48m / 7.6%) in H1 24. However, with the Euros and standout hits like Mr. Bates, I’m not convinced a true like-for-like comparison would be as flattering.

Their other goal, expanding studios, took a hit for various reasons. These issues will resolve over time, but the underlying concerning statistic for me was the percentage of revenue coming from streamers, which fell to 22% (from 29%). While internal delivery remains a significant income, if they’re not converting new streamer business, relying on other FTA broadcasters in similarly difficult markets (who are potentially less well run), will make substantial growth tricky.

While their digital conversion is progressing well, and it’s clear the business is well-managed, it strikes me their ultimate goal doesn’t seem particularly exciting. Surely being anything other than the ‘#1 Commercial Broadcaster Video On Demand Platform’ would be a failure for the clear #1 Commercial Broadcaster. At best, replacing linear revenue with digital revenue will give or take result in a business of the same size.

Other options?
1. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗽 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆: ITV’s Market Cap (£3.1B) is still a bargain for a well-run broadcaster reaching 40m-45m each month and a successful digital platform with 14.6m MAUs and 1m subs. The worst move would be to rebrand it. ITV is a longstanding, loved brand in tune with it’s audience. But a significant and serious catalogue could fall in behind them to make an immediate, serious international move. Sadly, that’s not usually how these things go.
2. 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵: Being in a strong financial position, not overly leveraged, they could become acquisitive themselves. Anything stateside might be challenging but there are plenty of interesting EMEA targets. Applying their demonstrably effective management approach to other media groups could yield value, particularly if combined with…
3. 𝗔𝗴𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: ITV emphasised the importance of their FTA digital play (vs. Subscriptions). How about stop playing nice with your peers (Freely), acquire a larger catalogue(s) and build out a major European commercial VOD platform? Their massive FTA audience could be upsold into a deeper experience and could be an opportunity if scaled across multiple substantial markets.

All that said, kudos to ITV. These are solid results, and while I wonder if they could be more aggressive, you can’t underplay the skill with which they’ve executed their plan. Any one of my options would add significant distraction.