ITV has unveiled “solid” if underwhelming results for the primary half of 2026, with a 2% uplift across its major profit centers. Total group revenue stayed regular at £1.9 billion ($2.5 billion).
These are the primary results published because it was revealed ITV are selling their media and entertainment arm to Comcast-owned Sky. Production outfit ITV Studios shall be spun off as an independent listed company.
ITV’s group adjusted EBITA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, and Amortization) also held regular at £145 million, marginally up (by 2%) from £142 million in 2025.
That figure continues to be a big drop from the £212 million reported in the primary six months of 2024. On the time, ITV put this all the way down to the Euros soccer tournament delivering an enormous boost, however it doesn’t appear the World Cup has had an identical impact.
The disparity could possibly be due to the variation within the England soccer team’s performance across the 2 tournaments: while they made it through to the finals of the Euros, sustaining and constructing interest throughout the tournament, the team were knocked out of the World Cup within the quarter finals, which led to a drop in viewing figures within the U.K.
Still, ITV said its total promoting revenue grew by 8% year-on-year, which they put all the way down to the World Cup, saying it had attracted “strong promoting and sponsorship demand.”
The news at ITV Studios was less sunny, particularly given the corporate is ready to be spun-off, making it an acquisition goal. Total revenue again held regular with a 2% uplift but EBITA dropped by 9% to £97 million from last yr’s £107 million (itself a 20% drop on the previous yr). That’s despite a variety of high-profile titles including “Love Island, “Rivals” for Disney+ and “The Gentlemen” for Netflix. ITV said the figure was resulting from the “phasing of deliveries,” a variety of which were backloaded to the second half of the yr.
However the media conglomerate admitted that the primary half of 2025 saw a variety of “large deliveries to streaming platforms” – including “One Piece” and “The Higher Sister” – which were “not repeated to the identical scale” in the primary half of 2026.
One in all ITV’s success stories is its streaming platform ITVX – believed to be the predominant driver of the Sky acquisition – which continued to deliver record viewing, growing by 27% in the primary half the yr. Promoting revenue also rose by 13% year-on-year even though it took a £20 million ($26 million) hit from the introduction of the federal government’s regulations on junk food commercials, which were introduced in Oct. 2025. ITV said it’s working “closely with advertisers to mitigate the impact.”
ITV also warned that promoting is prefer to drop by 5% in the following quarter, “reflecting the present macroeconomic headwinds” meaning that by the nine-months mark results shall be flat.
“ITV delivered a solid H1 performance and we remain on course to deliver our full-year guidance, including good revenue growth in ITV Studios and powerful, profitable digital revenue growth inside Media & Entertainment,” said CEO Carolyn McCall in a press release. “Macro-economic headwinds remain, but we’re focused on the performance of each businesses, with continued momentum, disciplined execution of our strategic priorities and a robust second half delivery schedule in ITV Studios.”
Meanwhile shareholders were granted a windfall with McCall announcing an interim dividend of 1.7p in addition to a £100 million share buyback.
McCall also confirmed the regulatory process is underway on the Sky/ITV acquisition and the culture minister is predicted to look at it closely.