ITV profit drops in H1 but digital ad revenue grows strongly
ITV reported a 31% plunge in group adjusted EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes, and amortisation) in H1 to reach £146m — down significantly from an increase of 40% (£213m) in H1 2024.
Total revenue dipped by 3% to £1.85bn. ITV said its H1 performance was “ahead of market expectations”.
In terms of advertising, total ad revenue was up 2% compared with the same period in 2023 — H1 2024 presented a tough comparison due to the Men’s Euro tournament boosting ad revenue.
Double-digit growth for digital advertising
Media and entertainment revenue was down 8% to £955m, with total advertising revenue decreasing 7%.
Digital ad revenue grew by 12% to £237m, highlighting ITVX’s continued strong performance, but this would have been offset by a poorer performance in linear advertising revenue.
ITV pointed to the success of its commercial partnership with YouTube in the continued growth of digital ad revenue, as well as the expansion of reach to younger audiences.
The digital ad revenue growth drove a 9% increase in total digital revenue to £271m.
Subscription revenue declined 8% to £24m from £26m in 2024.
In H1, ITV delivered 91% of the top 1,000 commercially broadcast TV programmes across the key genres of entertainment, reality, drama and sport, the broadcaster said.
It held a 32.5% share of commercial viewing on linear TV — down marginally from 33.2% in 2024.
Dame Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV, said: “ITVX continued its strong performance despite comparatives of the Men’s Euros and broadcast maintained its strength in delivering the biggest commercial audiences in the UK.”
Digging deeper into ITV’s digital performance, total streaming hours saw a 15% increase to 1,142m in H1. Monthly active users also rose 9% to 16.4m.
Earlier this month, Disney and ITV entered a “first of its kind” partnership that makes their content available on each other’s streaming services. It came into effect on 16 July.
ITVX and Disney+ content-sharing deal to bring strong co-promotion opportunities
Zoo 55 boosts ITV Studios
The other division of ITV, commercial production arm ITV Studios, posted a 7% decrease in ad revenue to £824m in H1.
However, total revenue rose 3% to £893m, with ITV citing Zoo 55’s “excellent progress” in the first half and its role in maximising monetisation opportunities through digital distribution of ITV Studios’ content.
This has seen key programmes distributed on global streaming platforms such as Rivals series two for Disney+, The Reluctant Traveller series three for Apple TV+, Gomorrah — The Origins for Sky and Love Island: Beyond the Villa for Peacock in the US.
“ITV Studios continues to see positive momentum, with strong growth in external revenues in H1, driven by content for the global streaming platforms,” McCall said.
Financial Times has previously reported that French media group Banijay is working on plans to take over ITV Studios and early talks were held in April. There has also been interest from investment group RedBird IMI, which owns All3Media, as reported by Reuters in January.
‘Robust’ performance
In the earnings report, ITV outlined an additional £15m in permanent non-content cost savings, taking the total group permanent non-content savings in 2025 to £45m.
ITV said it remains on track to deliver on its target of total organic revenue growth of 5% on average per annum during 2021-2026, at a margin of 13-15%, although it has not specified figures for 2025 itself.
Media investment analyst Ian Whittaker said ITV’s results point to broadcasters being broadly “robust”, despite macroeconomic and in-market pressures.
H2 programming launching across ITV’s portfolio include I Fought the Law starring Sheridan Smith, Cold Water featuring Andrew Lincoln and a new series of Trigger Point.
ITV’s recent moves
Last month, Channel 4, ITV and Sky announced that they are creating a joint self-serve TV ad marketplace to make their inventory more accessible for digital-native advertisers as well as small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
ITV has previously discussed its strategy of targeting medium-sized brands, which managing director, commercial, Kelly Williams dubbed “FELT” brands, standing for “fat end of the long tail”.
Williams also discussed ITV’s wider long-term strategy with The Media Leader recently.