ITN recorded its lowest profit in a decade in 2024 as its non-news revenue dropped 41% year on year.
The broadcaster, which produces daily news programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and 5, saw pre-tax profit nearly halve year on year from £1.5m in 2023 to £800,000 in 2024.
Overall revenue at the broadcaster dipped £5m (or 3%) year-on-year to £150.7m according to accounts newly filed at Companies House.
Revenue from news production alone was up 3% to £113.8m, although the accounts noted that “a proportion of this revenue was not profit-generating” because it was “pass-through”, meaning it was likely provided for spending on specific newsgathering activities.
Revenue from other TV and production sources fell from £45.2m to £26.8m. As well as producing ITV News, Channel 4 News and 5 News, ITN put together Channel 4’s first UK election night coverage in 32 years and makes factual programming including fast-turnaround documentaries like Pelicot: A Town on Trial for Channel 5 and true crime series like World’s Most Notorious Killers for US streamer Peacock.
ITN said the drop in profit was “driven largely by the impact of reduced news syndication contracts and non-recurring corporate costs partially offset by stronger newsroom contributions and overhead savings”.
The results also marked ITN’s lowest profit margin in the past ten years (0.5%), followed by 2023 and 2022 (both 0.9%).
The company’s UK revenue increased slightly from £143m to £145m and international revenue fell 55% to £5.8m, its lowest since 2020.
Cash and cash equivalents held by the business at the end of the year increased for the second year running, rising 10% from 2023 to £26m.
Staff headcount also rose 4% to 864, of whom 687 were editorial and technical workers and 177 worked in sales, administration and management.
ITN said a “significant” pension funding deficit of £96m continued to be a principal risk for the business. The company said it made £11.9m of pension contributions during the year and it is forecast to be able to fund the contributions going forward.
ITN last week trumpeted growth in its digital viewership, which it said had increased 40% year-on-year to 7.2 billion online views in 2024.
“The most significant area of growth came from TikTok accounts across all ITN-produced accounts, with ITV News’ TikTok accounts accounting for over 50% of the 7.2 billion figure.”
5 News editor Debbie Ramsay said last month that the broadcaster’s viewership had been “growing enormously” on Facebook, although she noted the outlet was still in its “infancy” online.
ITN is jointly owned by ITV, DMGT, Thomson Reuters and Informa.
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