Annual financial statement
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ITV plc Full year results for the year ended 31 Dec 2020 Carolyn McCall , Chief Executive , said : " 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 . " I'm proud of the work of all our colleagues and thank them for their dedication , creativity and hard work to successfully manage our way through the crisis while continuing to invest in our strategy . Our production teams were very innovative in restarting productions quickly and safely in the UK and internationally , while our commercial colleagues inspired advertisers to restart their marketing campaigns . " Good progress has been made in delivering our strategic priorities with the rollout of our programmatic addressable advertising platform , Planet V , to agencies to a very positive response ; the acceleration of the transformation of the ITV Hub ; BritBox UK is ahead of plan hitting half a million subscriptions in January 2021 ; and BritBox US increased its subscriptions by 50 % over the year - we now have over 2.6m subscriptions globally across all our SVOD services . " 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 . We have restructured the Broadcast business to create the Media and Entertainment Division to better respond to changing viewing habits . ITV Studios is well positioned to take advantage of the continued strong growth in the demand for quality content internationally . " 2020 Financial performance has been materially impacted by COVID - 19 • Total external revenue was down 16 % at £ 2,781m - ITV Studios total revenues were down 25 % , impacted by the disruption to the majority of our productions from March - Total Broadcast revenues were down 8 % , with total advertising down 11 % despite VOD advertising up 17 % Adjusted Group EBITA was down 21 % at £ 573m which is better than external expectations , driven by the strong end to Q4 and tight cost control delivering £ 116m of overhead savings of which £ 21m are permanent - ITV Studios adjusted EBITA was down 43 % to £ 152m , impacted by the decline in revenue and the costs associated with COVID - 19 safety measures • Broadcast adjusted EBITA was down 9 % to £ 421m , with the decline in advertising partly offset by the reduction in the programme budget Adjusted EPS was 10.9p , down 22 % Statutory EPS was 7.1p , down 40 % Operational update : ITV Studios ⚫ 2020 : With the determination and innovation of the team , ITV's productions started to resume from the summer under our strict safety protocols We have invested in our creative development and creative talent as we have further strengthened our UK and international business and continue to diversify our customer base • SnowPiercer for TNT and Netflix has been recommissioned for a third series and Love Island is now in 20 countries • 2021 : - Our key strategic focus is to internationalise our formats , grow our scripted business and increase our commissions for OTT platforms In spite of the restrictions in place , as of today we have about 90 % of programmes back in production - We are monitoring and evaluating the situation but with the prevalence of the virus we do expect that there may be some continued disruption and delay with increased costs due to safety protocols 1