ITV is bracing for a double-digit plunge in advertising revenues after last year was boosted by the Euros football tournament, but said it does not expect its production arm to be hit by US President Donald Trump’s proposed film tariffs.
The group said it was still assessing the “possibility of trade tariffs in the US”, but added that its ITV Studios business should not suffer a direct impact if Mr Trump went ahead with his threat to impose a 100% tariff on international films.
“ITV Studios only produces TV programming and therefore do not anticipate any direct impact from the imposition of tariffs on films,” according to the group.
It said it expects total ad revenues to slump by 14% in the second quarter as it comes up against strong comparatives from a year ago, when trading was buoyed by the men’s Euros.
The group’s trading update also showed ad revenues dropped 2% in the first three months of the year.
But its ITV Studios division notched up a 1% rise in first quarter revenues as it returned to growth following the impact of the 2023 US actors and writers strikes.
Growth in the production business was held back by the ending of the Saturday Night Takeaway and The Tower programmes, with internal revenues down 26%.
Carolyn McCall, ITV chief executive, said: “While the macroeconomic environment is uncertain, we remain confident that our strategic initiatives, our focus on financial and cost discipline and our diversified revenue and customer base will enable us to successfully navigate an evolving market landscape.”
She added that the group was “continuing to make good progress in implementing our cost and efficiency programme”, with £30 million of non-content cuts expected over 2025.
