Studios soften a tough year for ITV

But Ms McCall has inherited a company that's just as likely to benefit from the incredible value in original TV content as it is to suffer. Its studios business – which now contributes around half of the group’s total revenue – produced more than 8,400 hours of programming in 2017 and has started to sell to major US competitors, including Amazon and Netflix. Non-UK sales made up over half of the studios’ total revenue thanks to the strong global reach for shows such as Poldark and The Voice.

Still, the ex-easyJet boss has decided it’s time to refresh the strategy: “We’re not trying to uproot ITV because we don’t need to, but the world has changed since the last strategy was set out.” Little has been confirmed about what the strategic refresh will entail, but management has confirmed between £15m and £20m of investment in online and data. This and the increased programme costs mean pre-tax profits and EPS are expected to fall to £775m and 15.5p, respectively, in 2018 and remain flat in the following year, according to broker Numis (from £800m and 16p in 2017).

ITV’s online offering is an important platform considering the dwindling demand for traditional advertising. Digital channels and the ITV Hub have increased the size of the group’s young audience and given an outlet for advertisers to target 16- to-24-year-olds, who are hard to reach via traditional marketing methods. An 11 per cent increase in online ads helped soften the blow from a 5 per cent decline in net advertising revenues from traditional channels – once the largest contributor to ITV’s top line.