U.K. TV giant ITV on Thursday reported slightly lower earnings for its ITV Studios production unit, due to a previously highlighted change in revenue mix, and a less pronounced than expected 5 percent advertising revenue decline for the full year 2025, compared with 2024.
The company had estimated late last year that its full-year 2025 ad revenue would be down 6 percent, with a 9 percent decrease in the fourth quarter as the “economic outlook in the U.K. remains uncertain, with widespread caution being exercised across business sectors ahead of the budget in November.”
On Thursday, ITV, led by CEO Carolyn McCall, said its total external revenue in the latest full year rose 1 percent, with total revenue unchanged, while adjusted EBITA dropped 1 percent amid “tight cost management.”
ITV has been in deal talks with Comcast’s Sky. The company said in November that it was in discussions to sell its media and entertainment unit to Sky for £1.6 billion. ITV’s financial update on Thursday mentioned Sky this way: “Following our announcement in November 2025, we remain in discussions with Sky regarding a possible sale of the M&E business. There can be no certainty as to whether a transaction will take place and an update will be made in due course.”
ITV Studios has over the past 36 hours become a renewed focus of deal chatter following a mega-merger between production giants Banijay and All3Media, owned by a joint investment partnership between Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird and IMI Media, led by RedBird operating partner and RedBird IMI CEO Jeff Zucker. RedBird IMI had acquired All3Media in 2024 for $1.45 billion.
During a Wednesday conference call, François Riahi, the CEO of Banijay Group, the parent company of Banijay, was asked about the merged entity’s possible interest in ITV Studios. “Consolidation is the name of the game,” he said, adding that the company would keep all options open. “When you look at the Warner-Paramount deal, it’s very easy to understand why you need to be big and global to be relevant in this sector. So we share this view with RedBird IMI.”
In response to a reduction in advertising demand, ITV said in November that it had identified £35 million of additional temporary savings in its Media & Entertainment (M&E) segment in the fourth quarter. “These savings align our M&E cost base — particularly content and discretionary spend — with the softer advertising demand we are seeing in the fourth quarter and will largely offset the expected reduction in total advertising revenue,” it highlighted.
The targeted cuts included 20 million pounds ($26 million) in content savings, “as we move some programming into 2026, which will be financed out of the existing 2026 content spending plans,” ITV said.
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