Member Article

ITV issues special dividend

Broadcaster ITV said it will pay its shareholders a special £156m dividend after earnings rose by 13% over the past 12 months.

External revenues were up 3% to £2,140m and all aspects of the business experienced growth, while pre-tax profits rose by 6% to £348m.

A full-year dividend of 2.6 pence was revealed on Wednesday along with a 4 pence special dividend after ITV ended the year with net cash of £206m.

The broadcaster said that despite falling figures for programmes such as The X Factor, new dramas such as Mrs Biggs and Downton Abbey retained significant watcher figures along with I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here and Coronation Street.

Adam Crozier, ITV’s chief executive, commented: “We’re now almost three years into our Transformation Plan and our strong performance is delivering growth right across ITV, enabling us to build a stronger and more balanced business.

“Our Broadcast & Online business is robust and growing, with profits up 9% to £413m, and our audience is in high demand from advertisers.

“We’re investing in Online, Pay & Interactive, which are now a material and rapidly growing part of ITV with revenues increasing by 26% to £102m - and more than doubling over the last three years.

“While there is still much to do this is clear evidence that ITV is transforming into a more robust, efficient and balanced company.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .