ITV, the British broadcaster behind hits including Love Island and The Voice UK, suffered a £156 million ($215M) blow to its earnings during the height of the coronavirus crisis, as the pandemic hit the ad market and shut down production.
ITV’s adjusted EBITA stood at £573M in the full-year of 2020, down 21% on £729M in 2019. Total group revenue dropped 16% to nearly £3.3 billion over the same period of time, according to financial results published Tuesday.
ITV CEO Carolyn McCall acknowledged the drop in performance, but said the company still outstripped forecasts. “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,” she said.
Elsewhere, the company revealed that BritBox, its joint-venture streamer with the BBC, now has 2.6M subscribers across the world. BritBox UK, which boasts originals including Spitting Image, hit half-a-million subscribers in January.
More follows