STV sees ‘strong performance in challenging markets’

The channel 3 broadcaster (formerly ITV regions) and prodution company have revealed their ‘Full Year Results’ for 2024…

The results for the company, that launched in 1957, demonstrate the benefits of diversification against a challenging market backdrop they note. Adding that the group revenue growth of 12% to £188.0m has been driven by acquisition-related growth in Studios and Euros-related advertising.

The report shows that STV Studios revenue is up 26% to £84.1m and adjusted operating profit up 18% to £6.1m while digital sales (before commission) up 8% to £21.8m (net of commission -4%); year 1 of commission drives lower adjusted operating profit of £8.4m as the company expected.

Rufus Radcliffe, Chief Executive:

“I’ve been with STV for 4 months and it’s clear that the foundations of the business are strong.  STV is a much more balanced Group following the scaling of our Studios and Digital businesses, with good growth potential. 2024 was a good year for STV. We delivered a strong performance against a challenging economic backdrop, with results in line with expectations.  We are controlling those elements we can, in line with our strategy, and are very much on track to ensure that STV is in the best possible shape when the market recovers.

“We’re seeing continued growth in our Studios business, with 51 commissions won in 2024 for more customers than ever before.  Across our 21 labels we have secured future revenue of £76m, with strong development pipelines across all genres.”

STV Studios continues to build momentum in a difficult market, with strong performances from recent acquisitions including Two Cities’ first contribution to Group results is revenue of £31.5m and adjusted operating profit of £2.7m driven by Amadeus (Sky) and Blue Lights (BBC) and Hello Halo and Rumpus, which the Group moved to majority stakes in during H2, contributed a combined £5.5m in revenue and £1.1m in adjusted operating profit.

STV Studios adjusted operating margin was 7.2% (2023: 7.7%), the slight reduction a product of genre mix in programmes delivered and margin pressure from commissioners. As for the broadcast side of the company STV & STV Player combined still the clear number 1 for commercial audiences in Scotland.  STV has a 19% share of total peak commercial audience in 2024 (vs Netflix 13%, Sky 10% and C4 6%).

STV was the most watched commercial channel in Scotland on 363 of 366 days in 2024 while in 2024, STV aired the best-watched quiz show (The 1% Club), drama (Mr Bates vs The Post Office), and soap (Coronation Street) across all channels in Scotland. The STV Player continues to deliver monthly active users 1m (FY26 target of 1.5m). Acquired titles for the Player represented 36% of consumption, with key titles including Brookside (3.7m hours in 2024; 8.5m hours since launch in Feb-23) and Red Rock (2.8m hours since launch to end 2024).

Financially STV controlled advertising revenues +5%, comprising SME advertising +12%, Scottish Government advertising -39%, Scottish VOD revenue +6%, with c.60% of brands combining linear and VOD, 97% of top 500 commercial audiences were on STV in 2024, new advertisers on STV in 2024 totalled 124, with a re-booking rate of c.55% and registrations to subscription service, STV Player+, up 36% to 22,000.

Rufus Radcliffe, Chief Executive:

“STV continues to be Scotland’s pre-eminent marketing platform, reaching 3.3m people per month. The Euros provided a welcome boost to viewing and advertising in H1 2024, winning us a 48% audience share across the tournament, and delivering record audiences for live viewing on STV Player. I’m working closely with the leadership team on a strategy refresh taking us to 2030.  This will build on the strengths of our existing strategy and take it to the next stage of development and growth.  I look forward to updating on this in May 2025.”