STV books £188 million in sales as new CEO ‘blown away’ by strength of brand in Scotland

STV Group’s new boss has given an upbeat outlook for the Glasgow-based broadcaster describing it as one of Scotland’s strongest brands as he unveiled double-digit growth in annual revenues, despite a “challenging market backdrop”.

Rufus Radcliffe, who has been in the chief executive’s role for just over four months, said television broadcasting remained “resilient” with viewers “loving big shared live experiences”, such as the Euros football championship, which helped underpin the group’s solid performance in 2024.

He told The Scotsman: “We feel very confident about our viewing and advertising proposition but equally the international growth opportunities for STV Studios are really strong. That international footprint is something we are focused on and has great growth potential.

Rufus Radcliffe took up the post of chief executive at STV Group at the start of November.

“We have an incredible connection with our audiences,” he added. “I’ve been really blown away by the strength of the STV brand among viewers and advertisers. It really is one of the most famous brands in Scotland.”

Radcliffe, who took up the top post at STV at the start of November, was a member of ITV’s executive committee and latterly held the position of managing director of streaming, interactive and data, playing a key role in the acceleration of ITV’s digital transformation. He was responsible for the strategic development and launch of ITVX in December 2022.

Over a 13-year career with ITV, Radcliffe previously held the positions of chief marketing officer, where he ran all direct-to-consumer activities and led the brand transformation of ITV, as well as the marketing launch of BritBox. He also served as group marketing and research director. Prior to joining ITV, he spent nine years at Channel 4.

The change at the top at STV followed the announcement last year of Simon Pitts’ intention to step down from the board and his role as chief executive.

The Hit List is one of the programmes to come out of the STV Studios business.

The group said its 2024 results demonstrated the “benefits of diversification against a challenging market backdrop”. At the top line, revenues grew by 12 per cent, year on year, to £188 million, driven by acquisition-related growth in the STV Studios business - responsible for the likes of Amadeus (Sky) and Blue Lights (BBC) - as well as Euros-related advertising during the year.

The Studios division racked up revenue growth of 26 per cent, to £84.1m, while adjusted operating profit rose 18 per cent to £6.1m. Digital sales - before commission - were up 8 per cent to £21.8m, while total advertising revenue was up 5 per cent before commission.

It meant that group adjusted operating profit nudged up 3 per cent to £20.6m, with statutory operating profit more than doubling to £13.2m. A group adjusted operating margin of 11 per cent was slightly down on 2023, which had been expected, while the board is proposing a final dividend of 7.4p, making a full-year payout of 11.3p per share, in line with 2023.

Radcliffe hailed strong growth in the Studios business, which encompasses a number of brands, with 51 commissions won in 2024 for “more customers than ever before”. Two Cities’ first contribution to group results was revenue of £31.5m and adjusted operating profit of £2.7m driven by Amadeus and Blue Lights.

The Blue Lights drama came out of the STV Studios stable for the BBC.

The order book was described as “healthy”, sitting at some £76m at the end of February, down relative to the end of October 2024 (£92m), following revenue recognition of £21m and commissions won of £5m. Those orders include “high value” recommissions of Criminal Record (AppleTV+), Blue Lights season three and four (for the BBC) and The Fortune Hotel (ITV).

“It has been a tough market but we had 51 commissions,” noted Radcliffe. “The reason we feel confident about the future is because we have 21 labels working across all the main genres and there’s always going to be international demand for quality content.”

On the audience front, the group said STV and STV Player combined were still the “clear number one” for commercial audiences in Scotland. It highlighted a 19 per cent share of total peak commercial audience in 2024 (versus Netflix at 13 per cent, Sky 10 per cent and Channel 4 on 6 per cent). STV was the most watched commercial channel in Scotland on 363 of the 366 days in the leap year of 2024, bosses noted.

STV aired the best-watched quiz show (The 1% Club), drama (Mr Bates vs The Post Office), and soap opera (Coronation Street) across all channels in Scotland during 2024.

The group also said a cost-saving programme remained on track with an additional £1.7m targeted in the 2025 financial year. It has a cost-saving target of £5m per annum set for the end of 2026. The company’s main banking facility was refinanced in February “on favourable terms”.

STV, which holds the Scottish Television and Grampian Television licences, has had something of a fractious relationship with ITV in the past. The group, which was once called Scottish Media Group, has never been subsumed into the vast ITV empire, despite previous talk of a potential takeover.

Analysts at house brokerage Shore Capital noted that the results for 2024 were in line with expectations, with the business continuing to “diversify rapidly”. They described the progress within the Studios operation as “particularly exciting”, but pointed to some cost pressures:

“We understand that the business is still winning commissions, although management has indicated that the pace of wins is slower. Given industry budget constraints, the statement also alludes to an elevated level of margin pressure from commissioners.”

Radcliffe said he was working on a “strategy refresh” that would take the group through to 2030. An update on that is expected in May.

STV hails ‘Scotland’s most watched TV moment of the year’ as revenues jump by fifth