ITV will take £25m ($33m) out of its programme spending in the last three months of 2026 after its advertising revenue fell 8% in the third quarter, the UK broadcaster said in a trading update on Wednesday 11 November. It now expects advertising to fall by around 5–10% in the fourth quarter and by around 2–3% for the year, and has cut its 2026 content budget to about £1.2bn ($1.6bn).
The cut is a measure of how quickly the summer turned. In July, fresh from a football World Cup that had lifted first-half advertising by 3%, ITV expected a third-quarter fall of about 5%. The trading statement, covering the nine months to 30 September, shows group revenue down 1% at £2.76bn ($3.67bn) and external revenue down 2% at £2.36bn. The £25m comes out of £30m ($40m) of what ITV calls additional temporary savings in Media & Entertainment, the channels and ITVX business it has agreed to sell to Sky; the other £5m is discretionary spending outside programming.
Key facts
- Nine months to 30 September 2026: group revenue £2.76bn (−1%), external revenue £2.36bn (−2%)
- Total advertising revenue £1.24bn (−1%); third quarter −8%; outlook around −5% to −10% in Q4 and −2% to −3% for 2026
- Q4 savings: £30m, of which £25m content and £5m other discretionary costs; 2026 content budget about £1.2bn
- ITV Studios revenue £1.33bn (−1%); full-year EBITA margin at the lower end of 13–15%
- Sky’s purchase of Media & Entertainment still expected to complete in the second half of 2027
Worse than July’s forecast
When it reported interim results on 31 July, ITV said it expected total advertising revenue to fall about 5% in the third quarter and to be flat over nine months. It ended down 8% for the quarter and down 1% for the nine months, which the company now describes as slightly below its previous guidance.
Set against the first-half figures, the nine-month totals put third-quarter advertising at about £388m ($516m), down from about £423m a year earlier. ITV does not publish a quarterly figure; that number is FilmBunch’s subtraction from its two sets of tables.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall blamed three forces: broader economic uncertainty, more advertising money flowing to global streaming platforms, and the UK’s restrictions on advertising less healthy food, in force since 1 October 2025. “We are taking decisive action, aligning our investment with advertiser demand to deliver additional temporary content and discretionary non-content cost savings in Q4,” she said.
The budget guidance moves by the same amount. In July ITV expected total content costs of about £1.225bn for 2026; the new figure of about £1.2bn is £25m lower.
ITV still claims the better of its broadcast rivals. Its share of UK commercial viewing rose to 32.7% from 31.8%, and eight of the 10 most-watched series of the year across commercial broadcasters and streaming services were on ITV, the company said.
Streaming grows, linear shrinks
Media & Entertainment revenue fell 1% to £1.43bn ($1.9bn). Total digital revenue rose 7% to £461m ($613m) and digital advertising 6%, lifted by record ITVX viewing around the closing matches of the World Cup and by Trigger Point, Big Brother and Love Island. Streaming hours rose 29% to 2.15 billion.
On the same subtraction, ITVX and ITV’s other streaming outlets logged about 735 million hours in the third quarter alone, against about 549 million a year earlier, a rise of roughly a third. More viewing online has not yet made up for the fall in linear advertising.
ITV Studios bets on the fourth quarter
ITV Studios, the production and distribution arm ITV will keep after the Sky deal, reported nine-month revenue down 1% at £1.33bn ($1.77bn), which McCall said was in line with expectations. External revenue fell 4% because deliveries and licensing deals are concentrated in the fourth quarter, ITV said. Internal revenue, driven by programmes for ITV’s own channels, rose 4%, and catalogue distribution kept growing.
The third quarter on its own was weaker than that headline. ITV Studios grew revenue 2% to £912m in the first half, so the quarter works out at about £420m ($558m), against about £457m a year earlier: a fall of roughly 8% on FilmBunch’s calculation. McCall said a greater share of the studio’s full-year revenue was already secured than at the same point last year.
ITV still expects ITV Studios to deliver good revenue growth for the year, ahead of the market, with its EBITA margin at the lower end of the 13–15% range. Fourth-quarter deliveries include SuburraMaxima for Netflix, the third season of Love Island US: Beyond the Villa for Peacock, two seasons of Hell’s Kitchen for Fox, and the seventh season of Line of Duty, The Last Detectives and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ for the BBC.
The studio made five of the UK’s 10 most-watched dramas in the third quarter, ITV said: The Gentlemen for Netflix, the second season of Ludwig and the third of Vigil for the BBC, and The Blame and The Dark for ITV. The Blame, led by Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth, is the most-watched drama of the year so far.
The Sky deal and the balance sheet
ITV said the sale of Media & Entertainment to Comcast-owned Sky, announced on 6 July for £1.6bn, was “progressing as planned”. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice on the deal on 4 November, asking the Competition and Markets Authority and Ofcom to report by 27 January 2027. McCall called the notice “an expected and important milestone” and said ITV still expected completion in the second half of 2027.
At 30 September ITV had £940m ($1.25bn) of liquidity, made up of £240m in cash and £700m of undrawn committed facilities, and net debt of £695m, up from £652m at 30 June. A €360m bond that matured in September was refinanced by drawing on its £300m term loan. By the close on 6 November ITV had bought back 116.6 million shares for £81m under its £100m buyback.
The squeeze is not ITV’s alone. Across the Atlantic, Skydance has warned that weak Warner Bros. releases will cut its fourth-quarter studio profit. ITV reports full-year results on 4 March 2027.
Dollar conversions use the European Central Bank reference rates for 30 September 2026.
Sources
- ITV plc, Q3 Trading Update for the nine months to 30 September 2026 (RNS, 11 November 2026, 07:00)
- ITV plc, Interim Results to 30 June 2026 (RNS, 31 July 2026; H1 revenue, advertising, streaming hours and content-cost guidance)
- ITV plc, reports and results archive 2026
- ITV plc, financial calendar (2026 full-year results, 4 March 2027)
- ITV Press Centre, The Blame media pack
- European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates (30 September 2026; USD 1.1355, GBP 0.85463)