ITV’s pre-tax profit tanks 93% in the fiscal first half

ITV plc (LON: ITV) said on Thursday that its revenue from advertising came in 21% lower in the first half (H1) of the current fiscal year. The company attributed its dovish performance to the Coronavirus pandemic that weighed on demand for production and advertisements. Consequently, its pre-tax profit slumped by an unparalleled 93%.

Shares of the company tanked less than 1% in premarket trading on Thursday. The stock, however, declined by another 4% in the next few hours. At 60 pence per share, ITV is currently trading about 60% down in the stock market on a year to date basis.  

ITV reports £1.45 billion of revenue in H1

At £15 million, the British broadcaster’s pre-tax profit in H1 was reported significantly lower than £222 million in the same period last year. In separate news from the UK, miner Glencore reported to have swung to £1.97 billion of net loss in the fiscal first half on Thursday.

In terms of total revenue for the first six months of the financial year, ITV recorded £1.45 billion versus the year-ago figure of £1.75 billion. Its revenue from advertising tanked from £849 million last year to £671 million in the recent quarter. ITV’s studio revenue also printed at £630 million that represents a 17% decline on a year over year basis.

The company’s board decided in favour of suspending the interim dividend to shore up finances amidst the rising COVID-19 uncertainty. The company also blamed the Coronavirus pandemic that has so far infected more than 300,000 people in the UK and caused over 46,000 deaths as it refrained from giving guidance for the third quarter or the full fiscal year.

ITV to launch Britbox in Australia by the end of 2020

According to ITV, it is committed to boosting liquidity amidst the pandemic via cost-savings measures that it announced last month.  

The British media company also highlighted in its report on Thursday that its digital video subscription service, Britbox, has already topped the target for subscribers in the United Kingdom. The service is likely to be launched in Australia before the start of 2021.

ITV’s performance in the stock market was reported fairly upbeat last year with an annual gain of about 20%. At the time of writing, the London-based company is valued at £2.41 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 5.10.