Finance
UK's STV warns of annual profit miss on subdued ads market, shares plunge
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 28, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 28, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
STV Group warns of a profit miss due to a weak advertising market, causing a significant drop in shares. Scripted content remains stable, but overall revenue is expected to decline.
(Reuters) -British digital media firm STV Group warned on Monday that annual revenue and profit would fall short of market expectations due to a worsening advertising market, sending its shares to a more than 12-year low.
Shares fell over 24% - biggest percentage drop since November 2007 - to 145.4 pence.
STV has two divisions, Audience, which runs commercial public service broadcaster STV and streaming service STV Player and heavily relies on advertising, and Studios, Scotland's largest TV production company which gets commissions from the likes of Netflix and BBC to produce content.
A worsening macroeconomic backdrop in the UK has led to fewer funding approvals for creative projects, which has impacted the group's unscripted content, such as talk shows or documentaries, with some projects in advanced development stages not being approved and some being delayed to 2026.
STV Group said its scripted labels remained strong and it was still working on projects for Netflix, Apple, Sky and the BBC, with financial expectations remaining unchanged for that segment.
The company expects total advertising revenue, which makes up the lion's share of group revenue, to be down about 8% in the third quarter due to a challenging advertising market.
The group expects total revenue to range between 165 million pounds and 180 million pounds ($221.50 million and $241.63 million), and an adjusted operating margin of about 7% for the year ending December 31, 2025.
($1 = 0.7449 pounds)
(Reporting by Unnamalai L in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Eileen Soreng)
Advertising revenue is the income generated from selling advertising space or time to businesses, which is a significant source of income for media companies like STV Group.
Scripted content refers to television shows, films, or other media that are written and planned in advance, as opposed to unscripted content like reality shows or live broadcasts.
A challenging advertising market is characterized by reduced demand for advertising space, often due to economic downturns or shifts in consumer behavior, leading to lower revenues for media companies.
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