ITV’s CEO has used her appearance at a leaders conference to talk up the part of her business that could soon be sold to Sky.
Carolyn McCall gave an impassioned talk about why the Media & Entertainment biz, aka ITV channels and streamer ITVX, is “extremely resilient and cash generative.”
The network is “recognized by shareholders as a strong business, not what it was six or seven years ago,” she said.
McCall declined comment on the £1.6B ($2.2B) sale to Sky, which is in “active discussions,” and could soon separate from the ITV Studios production-distribution arm, which some see as being more lucrative.
“Media & Entertainment is the platform where things will break, succeed and get sold around the world,” added McCall. “We’ve optimized what we do. The way we work on M&E has changed fundamentally.”
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She added that it is “as important to tell your story well to investors as to audiences.” But she did note it is a UK business, exposed to “bumpiness” that is impacted by advertising and lower consumer spending.
ITV Studios, McCall added, which would be retained after the deal, is probably the world’s second biggest super-indie behind the newly combined Banijay-All3Media.
In a Q1 trading update a few weeks back, revenue at ITV’s M&E biz declined slightly to £477M, while ITV Studios grew 4% to £400M, with further growth forecast for the latter.
McCall was speaking at the Enders TMT Leaders Live Conference alongside chiefs at Netflix, Disney and WBD.