ITV announced its results for the first semester of the year

ITV announced its results for the first semester of the year, a period ending on June 30. The company recorded a strong performance across the business with both its ITV Studios and Media & Entertainment divisions performing even better than the group expected at the beginning of the year.

Revenues in both ITV Studios and Media & Entertainment divisions were up year on year and as a result total external revenue rose 8%. In detail, ITV Studios revenue was up 16%, growing ahead of the wider market. High end scripted hours grew 82%, and revenue from streaming platforms also grew strongly, now accounting for 19% of total revenues, up 3% points.

Meanwhile, in Media & Entertainment, the company’s investment in content, data and technology is already bearing fruit with digital advertising revenue up 20% driven by record levels of streaming on the ITV Hub, up 8% with 814 million streams in the first half of the year.

"Despite the tough comparators of last summer, when the Euros and a rebounding economy drove record advertising revenues, TAR is expected to be broadly flat in the nine months to the end of September. We are mindful of the macro economic uncertainty, however we have for the first time ever in Q4, the football World Cup to look forward to,”  commented Carolyn McCall, Chief Executive of ITV.

"We are on track against all the new KPIs and targets we announced earlier this year as part of the second phase of our ‘More Than TV’ strategy, and we are very focused on successfully launching ITVX, our new free ad-funded streaming service, in the fourth quarter of this year,"  McCall added.