ITV “encouraged” by roadmap out of lockdown following 25% revenue drop in 2020

Broadcast network ITV has expressed confidence in the government’s roadmap out of the lockdown in the publication of its 2020 results.

For the 12 months ending December 31 2020, the group saw revenues of its ITV Studios business drop by a quarter, attributed to the pausing of programme production as a result of COVID-19.

Despite disruption caused by the pandemic, ITV - which saw an 11 per cent decrease in advertising revenue - continued to broadcast 10 hours of live daytime and news programming each weekday, as well as maintaining content levels on ITV Hub and Britbox,

Carolyn McCall, ITV’s chief executive, commented: “Throughout this last year, we have all been dealing with the effects of the pandemic. As the UK’s largest commercial network, we’ve worked hard to fulfil our responsibility as a source of reliable and trusted news and to deliver some of the best entertainment into the country’s homes.

“While total revenues and profits were down our financial performance was ahead of expectations driven by a strong end to Q4 and our firm control over costs.

“We are encouraged by the roadmap out of lockdown. We are seeing more positive trends in the advertising market in March and April and the majority of our programmes are now back in production.

“However, there remains uncertainty in all markets around the world with the potential risk of lockdowns, which if they materialise will affect revenues. We are committed to taking further cost out of the business while further investing to accelerate the delivery of our strategy and digital transformation.”

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