ITVS profits fall 21% despite ‘significant’ US growth

ITV Studios suffered a 21% drop in profits during the first half of 2025 but a near 40% rise in revenue from its US operations helped to cushion the blow.

The eye-catching growth Stateside – a £43m ($58.2m) year-on-year rise that took revenue from £117m ($158.4m) in 2024 to £160m ($216.7m) this year – was driven by ITV America’s unscripted output, the company said.

Its slate includes unscripted shows such as The Voice for NBC and Love Island USA for Peacock, as well as Netflix’s Sneaky Links: Dating After Dark.

ITV America recently re-hired David Eilenberg from Roku to further fuel its unscripted output, while the company said that streamers are now contributing nearly all revenues deriving from its US scripted slate, which includes Prime Video’s drama The Better Sister. 

ITVS’s UK operations also saw revenue increase, with a 7% uptick to £420m fuelled by scripted shows such as Code of Silence, while ITVS International – accounting for non-UK and non-US operations – notched a £3m rise to £171m.

Global partnerships, which includes content distribution and format sales, fared less well, with revenue falling 26% from £191m to £142m.

Format sales were up year on year – with 47 unique formats sold internationally in H1 versus 36 in 2024 – but catalogue deals were down.

ITVS said this was because of the “tough” comparison versus 2024, when high-value sales rose due to the absence of original commissions as a result of the US writers’ and actors’ strikes. It added that 2025 production deliveries are weighted towards the second half of the year.

Cumulatively, ITVS revenues rose 3% to £893m, with costs rising 7% to hit £786m, although £11m was saved via “production efficiencies and organisational redesign savings”. That led to ITVS’s adjusted EBITA of £107m, down from £136m a year ago.

Other nuggets to come out of the interim report underlined the challenges facing unscripted – ITVS revenues from the genre were £461m, down from £480m a year earlier – while scripted revenues rose 27% from £211m to £267m in H1 2025.

Overall, 59% of ITVS revenues came from outside of the UK (versus 54% in 2024), and the company said shows such as A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder for Netflix and the BBC would drive revenue in the second half of the year.

Full-year margin is expected to come in at between 13-15%, with ITVS adding that it would use production hubs for key global formats and adopt “the operational use of AI to enhance creativity and optimise production processes” where possible.

Across the company, ITV reported profits down a third to £146m, with total group revenue falling 3%.

Chief exec Carolyn McCall said in a subsequent earnings call with analysts that ITV is looking to partner with PSBs, streamers and tech companies to promote its reach and ability to monetise its content.