ITV posts record June performance
ITV posted its best ever ad revenue for the month of June after advertising rebounded strongly with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions and the boost of Euro 2020 football coverage.
The UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster, which broadcast England’s semi-final victory over Denmark to a peak of nearly 26 million this month, today reported a 27% increase in total external revenue to £1.55bn for the first half of 2021.
Ad revenue
- Total advertising revenue in H1 was up 29%, with May up 87% and June up more than double (115%) compared to the same period in 2020
- June 2021 delivered the largest advertising revenues for the month of June for ITV in its history
- Total ad revenue for June and July 2021 is expected to be 16% higher than the same period in 2018 when ITV broadcast the Football World Cup and the fourth series of Love Island
- ITV also reported “strong” growth in VOD advertising, which was up 55% in H1 compared to the same period in 2020, even after double-digit growth over the full year 2020
Audience
- Total ITV viewing was down 6% in H1, which the company said was due to “tough comparatives and the easing of lockdown restrictions”. It marked out strong rating for Unforgotten, Saturday Night TakeAway, The Masked Singer, Euro 2020 and the start of Love Island
- Viewing on ITV Hub, its on-demand platform, was up 6%, while dwell time was up 4% and simulcast viewing was up 20%
- Registered users for the ITV Hub were up 7% at 34.6 million and monthly active users (MAU) were up 7%
- The ITV main channel share of viewing was up from 16.9% to 17.4%; ITV Family SOV was up from 22.6% to 22.7%
Other notable announcements
- Linear broadcast represents 93% of all commercial audiences over 5 million
- ITV is working to improve ITV Hub by “increasing the depth and strength of content with more series drops and expanding the library” and has an AVOD-led commissioning strategy for ITV2, ITVBe and CITV to increase those channels’ appeal to younger and lighter viewers. It is also working on the design and functionality of the Hub across platforms with increased personalisation and “curatable content rails”
- Nearly two-thirds (65%) of ad campaigns run on Planet V, ITV’s addressable TV platform, are now self served by agencies with 650 people fully trained to use it
- BritBox UK now has 555,000 subscriptions, up over 10% year-on-year, while BritBox International is “performing strongly” in the US, Canada and Australia with two million total subscriptions, up around 18%. Britbox will launch in South Africa next month
ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said: “We are now a more flexible, more efficient and more digital business. We have successfully completed the first phase of our More Than TV strategy and look forward to building on this platform to accelerate our transformation to a digitally led media and entertainment company.
“We are optimistic about the future, despite the ongoing pandemic risk on our advertising and ITV Studios revenues.”