ITV Unveils “Temporary” Content Cost Cuts as Q3 Ad Revenue Drops 8 Percent Amid “Weaker” Demand

U.K. TV giant ITV, led by CEO Carolyn McCall, reported latest revenue trends for its ITV Studios production arm and advertising business on Wednesday.

Total third-quarter ad revenue fell 8 percent from the year-ago period. That left nine-month ad revenue down 1 percent.

“Due to the weaker demand for advertising, we expect total advertising revenue to be down around 5-10% in Q4 and down around 2-3% for the full year 2026 when compared to the same period in 2025,” McCall said. “To align our costs with advertiser demand, we have identified £30 million of additional temporary savings in M&E in Q4. This comprises: £25 million of content savings and £5 million of discretionary non-content savings.”

The ad business is part of ITV’s Media & Entertainment (M&E) segment, which the company agreed to sell to Comcast’s Sky in July for $2.13 billion. “While the outlook for advertising remains muted, we are firmly focused on self-help and mitigating actions, while continuing to execute our strategic priorities to drive performance across both businesses,” McCall said.

The CEO also commented on the deal outlook, saying: “The agreed sale of our M&E business to Sky, which will position ITV Studios as a highly attractive, pure play, global content business, is progressing as planned,: McCall said. “On 4 November, the Secretary of State issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN). This is an expected and important milestone in the regulatory review process, and we are pleased that it is moving at pace. We continue to expect completion in the second half of 2027.”

Last week, the U.K. government filed an intervention notice, meaning U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy asked regulators Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to formally investigate the deal. While Ofcom’s review will focus on the proposed merger’s public interest impact, the CMA will investigate it from a competition perspective.

ITV on Wednesday also disclosed that ITV Studios, which will become a standalone company once the Sky deal closes, recorded a revenue drop of 1 percent for the first nine months of 2026.

“ITV Studios’ performance for the first nine months, with total revenue down 1%, was in line with our expectations,” McCall said. “As previously guided, production deliveries and licensing deals are heavily weighted to Q4 this year and despite this, we have a greater proportion of our full-year Studios revenue secured than at this point last year.”

Total ITV revenue fell 1 percent over the first nine months of 2026, with external revenue down 2 percent.

ITV agreed to sell its media and entertainment arm to Sky in a deal that will see it divest its terrestrial TV channels and its streaming service ITVX. Sky is led by CEO Dana Strong. It not only operates pay-TV and streaming businesses in the U.K., Ireland and Italy but has also been growing its telecom offerings, such as broadband and mobile phone operations. Sky also owns the production arm Sky Studios, which is led by Cécile Frot-Coutaz and has been growing its investment in original content creation