Half Year 2024 STV Group PLC Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- STV Group PLC (LSE:STVG) reported a 20% increase in total ACV revenues and a 33% rise in adjusted operating profit for the first half of 2024.
- Studios revenue grew by 38%, with new commissions swelling the forward order book to over GBP100 million for the first time.
- Streaming revenues through STV Player increased by 14%, maintaining a strong digital margin.
- Broadcast revenue grew by 12%, with a 47% boost in broadcast profit, partly due to the successful Euro 2024 football tournament.
- The company announced an incremental investment in Glasgow-based formats creator, Hello Halo, increasing its stake from 30% to 51%, which will be earnings enhancing from day one.
- The macroeconomic backdrop remains challenging, impacting both advertising and program commissioning markets.
- Despite growth, the company remains cautious about the full-year outlook due to tough Q4 comparators, including the Rugby World Cup from the previous year.
- Interest costs have increased due to higher average base rates and net debt, impacting overall financial performance.
- The significant reduction in Scottish government advertising spend, down almost 60% year-on-year, has offset growth in the core regional advertiser base.
- The company faces risks from the recent announcement of spending cuts by the Scottish government, which could impact future campaign funds.
Right, good afternoon, everyone. I hope you all can hear well. You are very welcome. Thank you very much for joining us today. So in a moment, Lindsay and I will talk you through our results for the first half of 2024. We'll provide an update on our financial and strategic progress, as well as a sense of the outlook for the year. And as usual, we'll show you some on-screen highlights of shows that have been entertaining audiences on STV, as well as those we've been producing for other broadcasters and streamers in the UK and beyond over the last six months. But first of all, let me hand over to STV's Chair, Paul Reynolds, for some words of introduction. Paul.
Thanks, Simon, and hello, everybody. So in today's results, I want to talk about STV's strong performance for the first half of 2024 and about the leadership changes for the group. As you know, we continue to operate against quite a challenging
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