ITV Interim 2012 Results - dividend doubled

ITV plc Interim Results for the half year ended 30 June 2012

ITV Transformation Plan delivers double digit revenue and profit growth

• External revenues up 10% to £1,130 million (2011: £1,027 million), with growth in all areas of the business
• Total non-NAR revenues up £106 million, 26%, to £514 million (2011: £408 million) driven by ITV Studios
• ITV Studios revenues up £91 million, 34%, with double digit growth from UK and international businesses, reflecting in part the front loaded delivery of a number of shows
• ITV Family NAR up 3%, outperforming the TV advertising market up 2%
• ITV Family SOV down 1%, with digital channels performing strongly up 5%
• EBITA before exceptional items up 10% to £265 million (2011: £240 million)
• Adjusted PBT up 15% to £235 million (2011: £204 million)
• Adjusted EPS up 15% to 4.7p (2011: 4.1p)
• Positive net cash position of £92 million
• Continued improvement in efficiency of balance sheet with £275 million bond buyback in June
• Board has declared an interim dividend of 0.8p (2011: 0.4p)
• We expect ITV Family NAR to be broadly flat over the nine months to the end of September

Adam Crozier, ITV plc Chief Executive, said:

"The Transformation Plan continues to gain momentum. External revenues are up 10% with all areas of the business delivering growth. The £106 million increase in non-advertising revenues - from content, pay and online - was particularly significant and is further evidence that our strategy of rebalancing the business and growing new revenue streams is working.

"Our relentless focus on cash and costs remains key. We're on track to deliver cost savings of £20 million this year and our cash conversion is over 100%. We've also further increased the efficiency of the balance sheet with a £275 million bond buyback in June, bringing total debt buybacks to £937 million since October 2009. We now have positive net cash of £92 million compared with £612 million of net debt at the end of 2009.

"ITV Studios is performing strongly both in the UK and internationally with double digit revenue growth across all divisions and an increasing share of ITVS programmes aired on ITV1. Our investment in the creative pipeline is now clearly coming through in the financial results.

"While ITV Family Share of Viewing was down 1%, our strong Autumn and Winter schedule gives us confidence for the full year. Online we performed well with long form video requests up 20% and further improvements in the reliability and distribution of ITV Player. Our pay and online strategy has made good progress with the launch of our archive pay deals and YouView, and is soon to take another step forward with the roll out of ITV Pay Player.

"As we anticipated, ITV Family NAR was up 3% in H1, outperforming the television advertising market. The underlying TV advertising market continues to be relatively flat and while we remain cautious about the outlook for the TV advertising market for the rest of 2012, we expect to outperform it for the year as a whole. Over the full year we expect ITV Studios revenues to grow at a similar rate to 2011 and to grow the ITV Studios share of ITV1 output."

Half year results