ITV to cut costs by £30m amid falling advertising sales

ITV plans to cut costs by £30m this year, as the TV sector faces a chill wind of ditched commissions, falling advertising sales and job reductions.

The broadcaster, which has agreed to sell its television and streaming business to Sky, expects ad revenues in that division to fall between 5% and 10% in the crucial final quarter of the year, despite the typically busy Christmas season.

Ad sales are expected to drop between 2% and 3% over the course of the full year, ITV said.

The slowdown has pushed the company to make “temporary” savings, including £25m in content and £5m elsewhere in the business.

Content budget cuts will mostly affect small external commissions, pushing them into 2027, it is understood.

Carolyn McCall, the ITV chief executive, said demand for ads had weakened because of “continuing broader macroeconomic uncertainty” and “ increased digital advertising on global streaming platforms”. She also cited new rules this year that imposed a 9pm watershed on TV advertising for less healthy food.

Shares in ITV, which are listed on London’s FTSE 250 index, dropped by as much as 5% in early trading on Wednesday. It has lost about a fifth of its market value since the start of the year.

The business has struggled in recent years to keep up with deep-pocketed companies such as Netflix and YouTube, which have muscled in on traditional media’s audiences and commercial revenue.

Other mainstream broadcasters are also struggling, with the BBC intending to shed as many as 2,000 jobs and Channel 4 planning layoffs. ITV indicated the proposed cost savings would not involve staff cuts.

McCall has argued that the £1.6bn sale of its TV and streaming business to Sky is ITV’s route to survival.

However last week, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, issued a public interest intervention notice, triggering an investigation by the media regulator, Ofcom, and the Competition and Markets Authority.

Nandy raised concerns that the combined broadcasters would account for about 86% of linear news and current affairs viewing in Britain, as well as concerns over potential US political influence on editorial independence. Sky is owned by the US broadcaster Comcast.

ITV said on Wednesday that the deal was “progressing as planned” and it was still expected to complete in the second half of 2027.

The sale will leave ITV with its studios business, which makes shows for ITV and other broadcasters and streamers.

The company told investors that studios revenue was down 1% in the first nine months of the year, but it had made five of the UK’s top 10 most-watched dramas in the third quarter of 2026, including The Gentlemen for Netflix and The Blame for ITV.