Deep dive · Media · Accounts to December 2025

Inside the accounts · How does ITV make its money?

ITV's studio now earns more than its channels, £297m against £234m, and Sky wants to buy the channels

ITV plc runs two businesses. Media & Entertainment is the ITV channels and the ITVX streaming service, paid for mainly by advertisers. ITV Studios makes programmes, from Coronation Street to shows sold to streamers around the world. Its 2025 accounts show revenue of £3.5bn, advertising down 5%, and the studio now earning more than the channels. Sky wants to buy the channels. Where a figure says something about how the business runs, we explain it.

CompanyITV plc · 04967001
Accounts readAccounts to December 2025 PDF ↗filed 21 May 2026
ByJames Sproule · 5 November 2026
Reading time7 min read
£3.51bnRevenue, up 1%
£297mITV Studios' profit before one-offs; the channels and ITVX £234m
£1.72bnAdvertising revenue, down 5%
£338mPre-tax profit, from £521m
01

In 60 words

The answer

ITV makes money two ways: selling advertising around its programmes on ITV1 and ITVX, and making shows through ITV Studios for ITV and for broadcasters and streamers worldwide. In 2025 advertising fell 5% to £1,723m, while the studio's sales outside ITV rose 10%. The studio made £297m before one-off items; the channels and ITVX £234m.

02

Since the accounts

Sky and the channels

These accounts were approved on 5 March 2026 (p. 127). The first item comes from the annual report; the second from the government, not from the accounts.

  • Talks with Sky, in the report. The chair writes: "In November 2025 we confirmed that we are in preliminary discussions regarding a possible sale of our M&E business to Sky. There can be no certainty whether any transaction will take place" (p. 5). The accounts still show Media & Entertainment as a continuing business, and the report gives no price (pp. 126, 136).
  • 4 November 2026: referred for review. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport wrote to Sky and ITV that the Secretary of State "has decided to refer for Phase 1 investigation the anticipated acquisition of ITV M&E Holdings Limited by Sky UK Limited", with letters headed "Public Interest Intervention Notice" (GOV.UK). News reports have put the deal at £1.6bn (Express & Star).
What this means for ITVThe business Sky wants is the one shrinking on the advertising side: Media & Entertainment's revenue fell 5% to £1,991m. ITV Studios, which made more profit in 2025, is not part of it. Sky is also already a customer: the channels earn "revenue from platforms, such as Sky and Virgin Media O2" (p. 27).
Not in the accounts. The price, what ITV would do with the money, or what the Media & Entertainment business would cost to separate.
03

How it is paid

Make the shows, sell the audience

ITV Studios makes programmes and sells them, including to ITV itself: £605m of its £2,130m of revenue came from ITV's own channels (p. 136). Media & Entertainment shows them, free to watch, and sells the audience to advertisers.

ITV Studios

Make the programmes

Unscripted shows such as entertainment and reality formats are the biggest line, then drama, then the soaps, daytime and sport it makes for ITV1 (p. 20). 59% of the studio's revenue comes from clients outside the UK (p. 20).

£2,130m of revenue, up 5% (p. 20)
ITV Studios

Sell the formats

Global Partnerships sells programmes, format licences and games. "Global Partnerships sold 60 unique formats globally (2024: 65), 20 of which were sold to three or more countries" (p. 19).

£397m from Global Partnerships (p. 20)
Channels

Sell the audience

Advertising on ITV1, its other channels and ITVX. The advertising market fell in the second quarter against the men's Euros of 2024, and again before the Budget (p. 27).

£1,723m of advertising, down 5% (p. 26)
ITVX

Stream it free

ITVX is "our free, advertiser-funded streaming service" (p. 22). Monthly users rose 12% to 16.5 million; paying subscribers slipped to 0.9 million (pp. 23-24).

£540m of streaming advertising, up 12% (p. 26)
Where £4.1bn came from, 2025Before £610m of sales between the two businesses are taken out; ITV's reported revenue is £3,511m. Advertising split is our arithmetic.
  • ITV Studios
  • Media & Entertainment (the channels and ITVX)
Unscripted showsentertainment, reality and factual, for ITV and others£1,101m
Scripted showsdrama and comedy£685m
Soaps, daytime and sportmade for ITV's own channels£344m
TV advertisingon ITV1 and its other channels (our arithmetic)£1,183m
Streaming advertisingon ITVX, up 12%£540m
Platforms, partnerships and otherincluding fees from Sky and Virgin Media O2£182m
SubscriptionsITVX Premium£48m
Freeview capacity (SDN)multiplex space rented to other channels£38m

ITV Studios review, p20; Media & Entertainment review, pp26-27; note 2.1, p136.

28%

of ITV Studios' revenue now comes from streaming platforms, up from 25% (pp. 13, 19). Its scripted and unscripted sales to streamers have grown 21% and 43% a year since 2021 (p. 19).

£431m

of revenue came through one media buying agency, against £481m in 2024 (p. 137).

What this means for ITVThe two halves trade with each other. When ITV1 commissions fewer shows from its own studio, internal sales fall, as they did in 2025, down 6% (p. 20), and the studio has to sell more elsewhere. It did: sales outside ITV rose 10% to £1,525m. "Two-thirds of revenue" now comes from the studio and the digital side of the channels, a target ITV set itself (p. 7).
Not disclosed. Revenue from any single programme or format, such as Love Island, or what ITV pays its own studio for each show.
04

Media & Entertainment

The channels on one page

£1,991m of revenue, less £1,210m on programmes, £145m on selling and distribution and £402m of overheads, left £234m of adjusted EBITA, an 11.8% margin (p. 26).

The channels and ITVX on one page: £1,991m in, £234m left, 2025Media & Entertainment, before one-off items. Programmes are content costs; selling and distribution are 'variable costs'.
  • Totals
  • Costs and charges
  • Income and credits
£1,723mAdvertising+£268.0mOther income£1,991mRevenue−£1,210mProgrammes−£145.0mSelling anddistribution−£402.0mOverheads£234.0mAdjustedEBITA

Media & Entertainment review, pp26-27.

ITVX users: 10.5 million to 16.5 million in three yearsAverage monthly active users. 2024 as restated in the 2025 report.
  • ITVX monthly active users, millions
10.5m202212.5m202314.7m202416.5m2025

Key performance indicators, p14; Media & Entertainment review, p23.

−6%

"Total ITV viewing across all devices was down 6% to 12 billion hours, and was in line with the decline in total broadcaster viewing" (p. 26). ITV's share of commercial viewing slipped from 32.2% to 31.7% (p. 15).

4 years

early: ITVX "has already recouped its entire investment four years earlier than expected, and reached break-even two years earlier than we expected" (p. 22).

What this means for ITVProgrammes are the channels' biggest cost, and the one ITV controls most directly: content costs fell 5%, partly by moving some programming into 2026 (p. 26). With TV advertising shrinking, the plan is to make the money on ITVX instead. Streaming advertising is now 31% of all ITV's advertising revenue (p. 7).
Not disclosed. What ITVX costs to run on its own, or the profit on streaming compared with broadcast.
05

The finding

The studio now earns more than the channels

£297m against £234m. ITV Studios made £297m of adjusted EBITA on £2,130m of revenue, a 13.9% margin; Media & Entertainment made £234m on £1,991m, 11.8% (p. 136).

Growth came from outside ITV. "External revenue up 10%, reflecting strong demand from global streaming platforms" (p. 20). Studios UK grew to £989m and International to £434m; the US fell 21% to £310m (pp. 20-21).

A lower margin, by design. 2024's margin was higher because "2024 revenues including significantly high-value library sales" during the US actors' and writers' strike (p. 21).

The studio earns more than the channelsAdjusted EBITA: profit before interest, tax, amortisation and one-off items, the company's own measure.
  • 2024
  • 2025
ITV Studios13.9% margin£297m
Media & Entertainment11.8% margin£234m

Note 2.1, p136; ITV Studios review, p20; Media & Entertainment review, p26.

What this means for ITVOn these numbers, ITV is now as much a production company as a broadcaster, and the broadcaster is the part Sky wants to buy. If that sale goes ahead, what remains is mainly the studio, which sells 59% of its shows outside the UK.
Not disclosed. How much profit the studio makes on shows sold to ITV compared with shows sold to others.
06

The income statement

From £533m to £225m

From £533m to £225m of profit, 2025Each bar is one step. The year before, profit was £406m, helped by £212m from selling BritBox International.
  • Totals
  • Costs and charges
EBITA before one-off itemsstatutory£533m
One-off (exceptional) itemsrestructuring £69m, deal costs £38m−£107m
Amortisation and impairmentmostly bought-in businesses−£63m
Net financing costs−£25m
Tax−£113m
Profit for the year£225m

Consolidated income statement, p126; note 2.2, p139.

£107m

of one-off costs: £69m of restructuring and transformation, and £38m of "corporate transaction-related expenses", including "professional fees related to completed corporate transactions and potential corporate transactions" (p. 139).

£212m

The 2024 profit included a gain on disposals, mainly BritBox International sold to the BBC for £255m (p. 17). Without it, 2024's profit before tax would have been about £309m, so 2025's would have been higher (our arithmetic).

What this means for ITVITV reports two profits. "Adjusted" profit before tax, the one its managers use, was £448m, against £472m (p. 34). The statutory figure, £338m, is lower because of restructuring, deal costs and the amortisation of businesses it has bought. Both fell less than the headline drop from £521m suggests.
07

Where the money goes

Paid out to shareholders

Less cash from the same profit. 65% of adjusted profit turned into cash, against 83% in 2024 (p. 39). Free cash flow fell from £325m to £187m (p. 40).

A pension top-up. ITV paid £65m into its pension schemes, against £3m, even though the schemes are in surplus: £207m on the company's measure (p. 41).

Dividends equal to free cash flow. £187m of dividends, 5.0p a share, plus £38m of share buybacks (p. 130). "Since 2018, ITV has returned over £1.6 billion to shareholders" (p. 7).

Free cash flow of £187m, and all of it paid out in dividends2025. Free cash flow fell from £325m; buybacks took £38m more, so net debt rose to £566m.
  • Totals
  • Cash out
  • Paid to shareholders
  • Cash in
Adjusted EBITA£534m
Working capitalcash tied up in the business, as reported−£196m
Other adjustmentsnet of capital spending; our arithmetic£10m
Interest−£34m
Tax−£62m
Pension top-up£3m the year before−£65m
Free cash flowthe company's own measure£187m
Dividends5.0p a share−£187m
Share buybacks£199m the year before−£38m

Cash flow, pp39-40; consolidated cash flow statement, p130.

£566m

Net debt

Up from £431m; 1.0 times adjusted EBITDA, against 0.7 (p. 35).

£1,155m

Programmes already bought

Commitments to programmes and transmission not yet on the balance sheet, up from £978m (p. 146).

£300m

Loan to refinance a bond

Taken in 2025 to repay a €360m bond due in September 2026 (p. 17).

What this means for ITVThis is a modestly borrowed business that pays out most of what it makes. With advertising falling and more cash tied up in programmes, a year's free cash flow covered the dividend almost exactly; with the buyback on top, net debt rose by £135m and cash fell from £427m to £302m (pp. 35, 127).
08

Staff and pay

6,759 people and £684m of pay

£684m of staff costs, almost unchanged£293m of it was charged to the programmes staff worked on, or to one-off items, rather than to running costs.
  • 2024
  • 2025
Wages and salaries£545m
Employer National Insurance and other£93m
Pensions£30m
Share awards£16m

Note 2.3, p138.

Who the 6,759 people areMonthly average employed in 2025. Each square is 1%.
  • ITV Studios: 4,202
  • Media & Entertainment: 2,557

Note 2.3, p138.

Fewer people at the channels. "The decrease in headcount is due to the Group's cost saving programme, predominantly in the Media & Entertainment division" (p. 138). Media & Entertainment fell from 2,726 to 2,557.

Savings. "In 2025, we delivered £50 million of permanent savings, £5 million ahead of plan", and ITV expects £20m more in 2026 (p. 10).

The chief executive. Carolyn McCall's total pay was £4.23m, against £4.20m; the ratio of her pay to the median employee's was 71 to 1 (pp. 100, 107).

What this means for ITVMost of ITV's people now work in the studio, making programmes: 62% (our arithmetic from p. 138). £293m of staff costs were charged to productions and one-off items rather than running costs, because much of the work is making shows (p. 138).
09

In the directors' words

The year ahead

Q1 TAR is expected to be down around 2%. As is normal, advertisers are holding back budgets in order to spend in Q2 and Q3 around the expanded Men's Football World Cup.

Media & Entertainment outlook, p. 27

We expect content costs to be around £1.225 billion in 2026.

Media & Entertainment outlook, p. 27

There can be no certainty as to whether a transaction will take place and an update will be made in due course.

Chief executive, on Sky, p. 7
In plain termsITV's finances aren't under strain. Its auditor, PwC, gave a clean opinion and found no material uncertainty over its future (pp. 120-125), and its debt is modest. The question the accounts can't answer is what ITV becomes if the channels are sold.
10

Two years side by side

Year on year

2025 against 2024Percentage change, one scale. Profit is left off: pre-tax profit fell from £521m to £338m, but 2024 included a £212m gain on selling BritBox International.
Revenue£3,488m → £3,511m+1%
ITV Studios revenue£2,038m → £2,130m+5%
Studios sales outside ITV£1,392m → £1,525m+10%
Advertising revenue£1,820m → £1,723m-5%
Streaming advertising£482m → £540m+12%
Content costs£1,268m → £1,210m-5%
ITVX monthly users14.7m → 16.5m+12%
Average employees6,965 → 6,759-3%
Free cash flow£325m → £187m-42%

Income statement p126, segment reviews pp20 and 26, KPIs p14, note 2.3 p138, cash flow p39.

Show the figures as a table
Measure20252024
Revenue (external)£3,511m£3,488m
ITV Studios revenue£2,130m£2,038m
Media & Entertainment revenue£1,991m£2,102m
Advertising revenue£1,723m£1,820m
Streaming advertising£540m£482m
ITV Studios adjusted EBITA£297m£299m
Media & Entertainment adjusted EBITA£234m£250m
Operating profit£363m£318m
Profit before tax£338m£521m
Profit for the year£225m£406m
Free cash flow£187m£325m
Net debt£566m£431m
Net assets£1,823m£1,832m
ITVX monthly active users16.5m14.7m
Average employees6,7596,965
Dividends paid£187m£198m

ITVX users and streaming hours for 2024 are as restated in the 2025 report (p. 14).

?

Quick answers

Questions about ITV

How does ITV make its money?

ITV makes money two ways: selling advertising around its programmes on ITV1 and ITVX, and making shows through ITV Studios for ITV and for broadcasters and streamers worldwide. In 2025 advertising fell 5% to £1,723m, while the studio's sales outside ITV rose 10%. The studio made £297m before one-off items; the channels and ITVX £234m.

Is ITV profitable?

Yes. ITV made a pre-tax profit of £338m in 2025 on revenue of £3,511m, down from £521m in 2024, when it also made £212m from selling BritBox International. Before one-off items, its two businesses made £534m of adjusted EBITA: £297m at ITV Studios and £234m at Media & Entertainment, its channels and ITVX.

How much of ITV's money comes from advertising?

£1,723m in 2025, down 5%, or 42% of its £4,121m of revenue before sales between its own businesses. £540m of that was advertising on ITVX and other digital services, up 12%. ITV Studios, which makes programmes for ITV and other broadcasters and streamers, was 52%.

Is Sky buying ITV?

Sky plans to buy ITV's Media & Entertainment business, its channels and ITVX, but not ITV Studios. ITV's annual report says it was in discussions with Sky and that 'There can be no certainty' of a deal. On 4 November 2026 the government referred Sky UK's anticipated acquisition of ITV M&E Holdings Limited for a Phase 1 investigation. That comes from the government's notice, not ITV's accounts.

How many people work for ITV?

An average of 6,759 people in 2025, down from 6,965: 4,202 at ITV Studios and 2,557 at Media & Entertainment. Staff costs were £684m.

Does ITV pay dividends?

Yes. It paid £187m of dividends in 2025, 5.0p a share, the same as its free cash flow of £187m, and spent £38m buying back shares. ITV says it has returned over £1.6 billion to shareholders since 2018.

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The Takeaway

ITV makes its money from advertisers and from the shows it makes. In 2025 advertising fell 5% while its studio sold more to streamers around the world, and the studio now earns more than the channels: £297m against £234m. ITV paid out its free cash flow as dividends. The channels and ITVX are the part Sky plans to buy, and the government has referred the deal for review.

How to read this page
  • All figures come from ITV plc's consolidated accounts for the year to 31 December 2025, approved by the board on 5 March 2026 and filed at Companies House on 21 May 2026. Page numbers are the ones printed in the report, which are two lower than the PDF's page numbers.
  • The accounts are in millions of pounds. "Adjusted EBITA" is ITV's own measure of profit before interest, tax, amortisation and one-off items. Revenue shares of 52% and 42% are of £4,121m before sales between ITV's two businesses; the reported revenue is £3,511m.
  • Section 02 draws on the government's notice of 4 November 2026 and a news report, linked where used; nothing else on the page comes from outside the accounts. Hover over, or tab to, any bar for its exact value.