Shareholders of ITV plc (LON:ITV) have seen their shares crash on Thursday morning, as the firm saw its profit fall across their financial year.
Shares in ITV trade at 105p (-9.83%). 5/3/20 11:02BST.
The TV broadcasting firm noted that 2019 pretax profit had dipped 6.5% to £530 million from £567 million in 2018.
Notably, operating costs spiked 6.1% from £2.61 billion to £2.77 billion.
On a better note, ITV added that their total group revenue had risen from £3.77 billion in 2018 to £3.89 billion – this seeing a 3.2% rise.
The FTSE 100 listed firm also said that broadcasting total revenue was down 1.9% year on year to £2.06 billion, whilst total advertising revenue dropped by 1.7% to £1.77 billion but was guided to fall 2% – which gave shareholders a pre-warning.
ITV Studios saw their revenues rise 9% to £1.82 billion, and the company’s total non-advertising revenue rose 7.6% to £2.12 billion.
Going forward, the firm said that it expects advertising revenue to see a slight rise in the first quarter of 2020 – however early expectations suggest it could fall as much as 10% in April.
“Despite the ongoing economic uncertainty around the outlook for the UK following its departure from the European Union, we currently remain on track to deliver our medium term targets. At this stage, it is too difficult to assess the further implications of the coronavirus but we continue to monitor the situation closely,” said Chief Executive Carolyn McCall.
The firm proposed a final dividend of 5.4p per share, giving an annual total payout of 8p – consistent from a year ago.
Carolyn McCall, ITV Chief Executive, said: “Thanks to the hard work of our teams across the business, our full year results have come in ahead of expectations helped by revenue growth in the second half of the year in ITV Studios, advertising and online. We are making good progress in each area of our strategy and our investments in data, technology, online and in streaming will enable ITV to be a sustainable, diversified and structurally sound digital media and entertainment business.
We are growing our stable margin Studios business, transforming Broadcast and expanding our Direct to Consumer business. The investments in our strategic priorities are delivering. We are strengthening our creative talent in ITV Studios; accelerating the growth of ITV Hub; rolling out Planet V, our addressable advertising platform; strengthening our data and tech capabilities; and we successfully launched BritBox UK.
We are very focused on building a stronger, more diversified and structurally sound business. The media market is changing rapidly and our strategy continues to evolve to position ITV to take advantage of the opportunities in advertising video on demand (AVOD) and streaming, while mitigating the effect of competition for viewing.”
ITV’s guidance remains relatively consistent
In November, ITV confirmed their full year guidance – and the expectations seem to have met the results.
ITV said that it will deliver is full year guidance. It is confident that ITV Studios will deliver revenue growth of at least 5% at a 14% to 16% margin, the company said in a statement.
For the nine months to 30 September, total external revenues were down 2% amounting to £2.2 billion. Total ITV Studios revenue increased by 1% to £1.1 billion.
