ITV chief backs Budget: McCall hails tax break.. however earnings tumble
The boss of ITV has backed Jeremy Hunt’s plans to make the UK ‘second only to Hollywood’ for movie and tv manufacturing.
As she hailed the success of the Mr Bates vs The Post Office drama, Carolyn McCall praised the Chancellor’s determination to chop enterprise charges for manufacturing hubs by 40 per cent over the subsequent decade.
She referred to Wednesday’s announcement as a ‘good Budget’ for the artistic business – echoing feedback by Sky, which additionally produces a number of exhibits on UK soil.
‘We are beginning to become more like France, Australia and Canada in terms of encouraging investment in creative work, but we’re not there but,’ McCall mentioned.
The Government’s announcement will put Britain on a par with markets who supply tax rebates of 40 per cent to make productions there.
ITV boss Carolyn McCall (pictured) praised the Chancellor’s determination to chop enterprise charges for manufacturing hubs by 40% over the subsequent decade
McCall mentioned ITV was additionally ‘very proud’ of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which is now its greatest drama in additional than a decade.
The rights have been offered to 12 international broadcasters.
The present put the plight of subpostmasters into the general public eye and led to legislative adjustments. McCall mentioned: ‘We’re very pleased with what it’s achieved. It actually does present the facility of TV.’
The feedback got here because the maker of Love Island and Celebrity Big Brother mentioned earnings fell to £193million for 2023, down from £501million the 12 months earlier than.
Revenues dropped 2 per cent to £4.3billion in what McCall final 12 months mentioned was the ‘worst advertising recession’ because the monetary disaster in 2008.
Linear promoting – advertisements on TV reasonably than on-line – was a weak spot, with revenues down 15 per cent.
But 2024 was wanting a lot brighter because of the Euros soccer match this summer time.
Total promoting income is anticipated to be up 3 per cent within the first quarter of this 12 months, helped by digital revenues.
McCall mentioned ITV was additionally ‘very proud’ of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which is now its greatest drama in additional than a decade.
And ITV is within the ‘early stages’ of a strategic restructuring to chop prices additional to spice up profitability.
It final week offered its 50 per cent stake in BritBox, a subscription streaming service, to BBC Studios for £255million.
Analysts at Citi mentioned ‘the outlook is encouraging in terms of the outlook for advertising and cost savings’. Shares rose 12.2 per cent, or 7.42p, to 68.38p.
