has set out the steps it is taking to protect the business from the coronavirus chaos, which the British broadcaster says is wreaking havoc on its two key sources of revenue: Its production arm and the advertising market.
In an update on Monday, ITV CEO Carolyn McCall told investors that the company is operating in “unprecedented and uncertain times,” which have required to it make quick and difficult decisions about its future. As the stability of its revenue has been called into question, meaning it has scrapped all previous forecasts for 2020, ITV said it plans to slash its program budget by £100M this year.
Much of this is a result of Europ 2020 not going ahead, as well as the “late delivery of commissioned programming and active decisions to reduce our spend.” ITV has also identified a further £60M of savings in areas such as “discretionary” spend and capital expenditure. ITV has also withdrawn its dividend plans, which together with other savings means that it expects more than £300M of cash to be retained within the business.ITV’s share price dropped nearly 10% on Monday morning to 56.
Considering all of the repeats that ITV currently show, I don't think people would notice.