ITV Live Discussion

Nige_co 01 Aug 2018

Buy these FTSE 100 dividend stocks [link] Take ITV (LSE: ITV). Its share price has risen in recent months as the pressures of constrained ad budgets have eased. Yet it can still be picked up on a forward P/E ratio of just 10.8 times. This is a steal, in my opinion. As my Foolish colleague Ian Pierce pointed out, while a recovering ad market is of course great news, it’s ITV’s increased emphasis on producing great, original content which really makes it a standout buy. Revenues at ITV Studios rose 16% in the six months to June, to £803m. The profits recovery is expected to be slow rather than spectacular, with it anticipated to recover from the 3% bottom-line dip forecast for this year, with a fractional rise next year. This wouldn’t deter me from investing, however, as these predictions still lay a strong base for predictions of further dividend growth. An 8.1p per share reward is estimated for 2018, up from 7.8p last year, and yielding 4.9%. And the dial moves to 5.1% for next year, thanks to the anticipated 8.4p dividend.

Nige_co 31 Jul 2018

Liberum: ITV boosts profit with Virgin transmission deal [link] Broadcaster ITV (ITV) has signed a three-year retransmission deal with Virgin Media, boosting profits by around £40 million a year, according to Liberum. Analyst Ian Whittaker retained his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 275p on the stock after the announcement. ‘We estimate that this deal should give ITV an extra £40 million of pre-tax profits annually, equivalent to c.5% of full year 2019 consensus estimates,’ he said. ‘If ITV can reach a similar deal with Sky, this would mean close to 20% consensus earnings accretion. A side-effect of the deal is likely to be a renewed interest in acquiring STV, which holds the ITV licence in Scotland.’ The shares fell a penny to 165.4p yesterday.

Nige_co 30 Jul 2018

Is FTSE 100 mega-yielder ITV simply too cheap to ignore? [link] With its share price down sharply over the past two years, shares of ITV (LSE: ITV) now trade at a knock-down valuation of 10.7 times forward earnings and offer investors a 4.6% dividend yield. The travails of broadcast TV are well known, but at this valuation is ITV simply too cheap to ignore? Despite being one of the many millennials that rarely watch broadcast TV, I’m prone to believe ITV’s current price may be too good to pass up. This is largely because the company has done very well over the past few years to lessen its reliance on cyclical advertising revenue by producing more of its content in-house to both use and sell overseas. In the first six months of 2018, of the group’s £1,593m in revenue, a full £803m came from the studio division. It’s this studio division, which produces hits such as Poldark and Love Island, that is the likely future of the group as content producers are finding their properties in fast-increasing demand from distribution platforms like Netflix and Sky that can supply their customers with essentially limitless amounts of content. This is clear in the group’s H1 results, when revenue from the studio division leapt 16% while total advertising revenue grew a more modest 2%. And while the studio division offers lower margins, it clearly offers better long-term growth potential than broadcast TV and is far less cyclical. But for now, the combination of high growth from the studio division and very high cash flow from the broadcast and online advertising division makes a compelling formula for investors. In H1 these two divisions generated £375m in EBITA, which was more than enough to support the high dividend payouts while keeping net debt low at £1,034m. With high cash flow and growth opportunities, I think long-term investors would do well to consider ITV and its huge dividends.

Nige_co 29 Jul 2018

Viewers’ changing demands are the big picture behind planning at ITV thetimes.co.uk Viewers’ changing demands are the big picture behind planning at ITV ITV is to bolster its on-demand service and invest in data to take on streaming services such as Netflix. After announcing an 8 per cent increase in first-half revenues and noting that the channel...

Nige_co 27 Jul 2018

UK’s ITV and Virgin Media agree to three-year content deal businesslive.co.za UK’s ITV and Virgin Media agree to three-year content deal Virgin subscribers will be able to access all ITV channels live and on demand under the deal, but neither party disclosed commercial terms London — Britain’s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster ITV agreed to a three-year content deal with cable-TV provider Virgin Media, moving on from a dispute over payments for carrying ITV’s main channel. The deal follows a years-old disagreement in which ITV called for Virgin, a unit of John Malone’s Liberty Global, to pay a so-called re-transmission fee to show its ITV1 channel. It comes as new ITV CEO Carolyn McCall stamps her mark on the company she joined in January. “This exciting new commercial partnership has many benefits for both our businesses and for consumers,” McCall said in a statement on Friday. Virgin subscribers will be able to access all ITV channels live and on demand under the deal, with Virgin agreeing to expand advertising and marketing of ITV programming, the companies said. Hit ITV shows include reality-TV hit Love Island, period drama Downton Abbey, and the world’s longest running TV soap opera Coronation Street. The companies did not disclose commercial terms, saying only that the deal “maintains both parties’ respective long-held positions on the issue of re-transmission fees for the future”. Virgin is locked in a separate dispute with multi-channel broadcaster UKTV over fee payments, leading to UKTV channels, such as Dave and Gold, not being available for Virgin’s 4-million pay-TV customers since last week. Bloomberg

Nige_co 27 Jul 2018

ITV restyles itself as ‘more than TV’ – now it needs to find more than advertising The Drum ITV restyles itself as ‘more than TV’ – now it needs to find more than... “More than TV” is how Carolyn McCall describes the strategy she’s been working on for ITV since becoming its chief executive in January. It could just as easily be called more than advertising.

Gamesinvestor1 27 Jul 2018

Subscription services H - I missed the effin f out of Netflix, well spotted there m8! Games

Hydrogen_Economy 27 Jul 2018

Subscription services Games “How many direct debits is the average wage earner able to sustain, if he already has :- Sky Netlix Amazon Prime Disney just launched one” Well I imagine Netlix are very expensive. H2

TrenthamExile 26 Jul 2018

Liberum backs ITV’s new strategy I agree that, given the demographics for Coronation St etc., the introducing a subscription for ‘standard’ output would kill off audience numbers and thus advertising revenue. But perhaps a subscription for a premium service covering their best drama output and some of the newer films might be viable. Possibly?

Gamesinvestor1 26 Jul 2018

Liberum backs ITV’s new strategy Nige, I guess you answered my point well in the first sentence. On the second point, If you forced all the old people to pay £5 a month, there would be an uproar, then there would be the fact many would not know how to pay for it lol ! – no internet access and all that. The consequence of of minimising (reducing) the audience for Coronation Street, or Emmerdale or whatever, would be a massive audience drop which would hit their advertising exposure and revenue from advertising. That would be a zero sum game. I think ITV’s best hope of growth is to continue to develop and sell the content to other platforms, not spend a fortune on something that would overide what they already have. The stock price is telling us all that this is the sentiment - it’s down 3.46% as I type – the new CEO should have stayed with Easyjet and convinced them to adopt long haul flights and stayed on one. I might be a little unfair in this early judgement but it looks like a major mistake. It’s a shame because the content and studio stuff was growing nicely and the non advertising aspect of the business is becoming a larger share. Games — of course I could be entirely wrong – have been before mind !!

Nige_co 26 Jul 2018

Liberum backs ITV’s new strategy Hi Games, I don’t subscribe to any channels; I have enough channels on Free View and Free Sat. I should think if ITV put Coronation Street on a subscription. people would pay possibly £5 per month. Regards. Nige

Gamesinvestor1 26 Jul 2018

Liberum backs ITV’s new strategy Nige_co: He added that the online part of the strategy would ‘be the driver of total advertising growth moving forwards and new high margin revenue streams should help to drive earnings growth over the medium term’. Nige - would you pay for a subscription service from ITV, and if so how much a month, given that Netflix is what £6.99 a month and Amazon Prime is about £90 a year - and Sky is up there somewhere in the Sky? Games

Nige_co 26 Jul 2018

Liberum backs ITV’s new strategy ‘It will lead to consensus downgrades for 2019 on the back of extra investments although these will be offset by cost savings in 2020 and 2021,’ said Whittaker." This could be the reason for today’s share price sell off.

Nige_co 26 Jul 2018

Liberum backs ITV’s new strategy A new strategy at ITV (ITV) will grow revenue streams that will drive earnings growth over the medium term, according to Liberum. Analyst Ian Whittaker retained his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 275p on the stock after the broadcaster announced a new strategy focusing on growing total advertising, content, and direct-to-consumer revenues. ‘It will lead to consensus downgrades for 2019 on the back of extra investments although these will be offset by cost savings in 2020 and 2021,’ said Whittaker. ‘However, the strategy makes sense and fits in line with our view that ITV is now more than just linear TV.’ He added that the online part of the strategy would ‘be the driver of total advertising growth moving forwards and new high margin revenue streams should help to drive earnings growth over the medium term’. The shares were broadly flat at 170.7p yesterday.

Gamesinvestor1 26 Jul 2018

Subscription services If ITV are considering a competing streaming subscription service, they seem to be entering a crowded market ? :- How many direct debits is the average wage earner able to sustain, if he already has :- Sky Netlix Amazon Prime Disney just launched one Is there enough money in the pot for a joint BBC/ITV service? And if there isn’t, would anyone cancel one of the above to replace it with BITV (my suggested name for a combined BBC/ITV streaming sevice lol !) Games