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2 August 2013
RATINGS ANALYSIS
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BBC1 holds firm as C4 and Meet BBC1’s new C5 fall – but by how much? Saturday night stars
Southcliffe: the catharsis of grief
ITV indie deals to yield £100m Acquisition of Big Talk Productions takes number of deals completed in past year to seven BY JAKE KANTER
ITV’s indie acquisition spree is set to boost its turnover by as much as £100m this year as it bids to become a serious global player in the production sector. The commercial broadcaster remains on the hunt for further purchases after wrapping up its seventh deal in less than a year, bringing Big Talk Productions into the ITV Studios fold last week for at least £12.5m. ITV has made an initial outlay of more than £103m on seven indies in the past 12 months – a figure that is likely to rise significantly if they hit growth targets. That investment is providing an immediate fillip for ITV Studios’ revenues, which increased by 11% to £395m for the first half of 2013, and the new additions are forecast to add £100m to its top line this year. ITV chief executive Adam Crozier expects £70m of this to be generated in the US, where the company has bought Gurney Productions, High Noon Entertainment and Thinkfactory Media. ITV Studios is now one of the top five independent production outfits in the country, where its biggest rivals are Fremantle Media, 19 Entertainment, Mark Burnett Productions and Endemol. The remaining £30m will be made in the UK, where ITV’s initial £10m deal for Graham Norton’s So Television in August 2012 was followed by acquisitions of The Garden Productions and Big Talk Productions.
SPLASHING THE CASH ITV’S DEALS ■
So Television August 2012, £10m
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Tarinatalo October 2012, financials undisclosed
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Gurney Productions December 2012, £26.2m for 61.5% stake
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The Garden Productions April 2013, £18m
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High Noon Entertainment May 2013, £16.8m for 60% stake
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Thinkfactory Media June 2013, £19.6m for 65% stake
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Big Talk Productions July 2013, £12.5m
Note: All values are upfront payments
Chickens: ITV swooped for producer Big Talk last week for £12.5m
Now we’re a creator of content. There’s no doubt, given the demand, it was a good decision Adam Crozier, ITV
Its other deal, for an undisclosed sum, was for Finnish indie Tarinatalo, which now forms part of ITVS Nordic. There are suggestions that ITV could look to make greater inroads in this region after joining the race for Scandinavian super-indie Nice Entertainment Group. The acquisitions illustrate a key strategy for ITV, and Crozier said
the company is changing the way it perceives itself. “If you go back a few years, ITV had begun to think of itself almost entirely as a broadcaster, whereas now with equal force we’re a broadcaster and a creator of content,” he said. “There’s no doubt, given the sheer level of demand for content, that was a good decision.” He also stressed that ITV had secured “good-value deals” that had been structured in a way that would incentivise growth. “The multiples that we’ve paid for production companies are between six and eight times [their earnings],” he added. “If you go back a few years, people were paying between 10 and 12 times.”
ITV is not specifically targeting a transformational deal for a super-indie on the scale of Endemol, which the company examined briefly in 2011, although other purchases are on the cards. “What’s much more important to me is the quality of the companies and the quality of the content, rather than scale,” Crozier said on an earnings call for ITV’s half-year results this week. ITV intends to provide its new production partners with access to broadcasters and platforms around the world, greater commercial clout, talent and rights expertise, and development cash. ITV Studios’ EBITDA jumped 26% in the six months to 30 June to £63m.