STV ‘performance remains in line with market expectation’

This week STV – the last remaining independent broadcaster and production company of the Channel 3 network – revealed its 2024 performance…

STV note that the company has performed across the year in line with market expectations, despite continued challenging advertising and commissioning market conditions and ongoing weakness in linear TV advertising. The production arm, STV Studios, continues to trade well, winning commissions despite constrained budgets and delivering for our customers in a continued inflationary environment.  The forward orderbook sits at £92m at the end of October, with the division having delivered revenue of £24m and won commissions with a value of £15m since end July.

Following the success of Brookside repeats and Disney drama titles, STV Player continues to acquire key content and is now the only place where UK viewers can stream Irish police soap drama Red Rock, from start to finish for free. Since its launch in mid-September, Red Rock has delivered 2m hours of viewing and is currently the best performing title on STV Player this year, after the soaps.

Rufus Radcliffe, STV Chief Executive:

“I joined STV on 1 November and have been very impressed by its strong foundations and prospects for future growth. I’ve been struck by the creativity, dynamism and commitment of the team and I look forward to working closely with them to build on recent successes. There’s no doubt that we continue to operate against a challenging advertising and commissioning backdrop, and we will continue to take action to mitigate against that where possible.” 

Rufus Radcliffe

Following confirmation of multiple commissions including a second series of global drama, Criminal Record, for Apple TV+, STV Studios labels have secured further orders in the final part of 2024. These include two original new formats for wholly-owned label Crackit TV – Crime Scene Cleaners for Channel 4 and Hunting Britain’s Bedroom Predators for Channel 5. Both series will be aired next year.

The company also noted that there continues to be a strong focus on cost control across the business. STV’s three-year cost savings plan is on course to deliver at least £1.5m of savings in 2024 and hit the target £5m annual run rate by the end of 2026, as previously guided. Recent changes have seen the dual hosted STV News at Six become a single presenter programme.

Rufus Radcliffe, STV Chief Executive:

“The acquisition strategy in STV Studios is helping us to deliver in a tough market, with new commissions secured for original formats since our interim results. We expect the full year TAR to be up 2-3%, boosted by the Euros earlier this year. The winter schedule brings the return of entertainment juggernaut, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, and The 1% Club. And looking further ahead, we have a strong drama offering at the start of 2025 on STV and STV Player.”