ITV: Adam Crozier cut dependence on TV ads and built a global production arm

ITV, Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster, emerged from the 2008-09 advertising crash badly damaged: a £2.7bn loss in 2008 followed by a bare £25m profit in 2009, after what chairman Archie Norman called the worst television advertising downturn on record. The company was almost wholly dependent on UK spot advertising. In 2010 Adam Crozier, formerly chief executive of the Royal Mail and the Football Association, arrived as CEO and in August 2010 put a five-year transformation plan in place.

The plan's core was to reduce reliance on UK free-to-air advertising by building ITV Studios into an international production and distribution business. ITV bought controlling stakes in producers such as Gurney Productions, High Noon Entertainment, Thinkfactory Media and Leftfield Entertainment, later adding Talpa Media (maker of The Voice). It also refreshed the broadcast side, launching ITV Encore, its first pay-TV channel, and ITVBe, its first new channels in almost a decade, and grew online, pay and interactive revenue.

The results compounded: 2014 revenue rose 8% to £2.6bn with EBITA up 18% to £730m, and ITV Studios revenue grew 9% to £933m. By 2015 adjusted pre-tax profit reached $1.18bn, up 18%, total revenue rose 15%, and Studios revenue jumped 33% to £1.24bn with 53% of it from outside the UK — Crozier called it the world's most profitable production business outside the US majors.

By 2014 revenue was £2.6bn with EBITA up 18% to £730m; by 2015 adjusted pre-tax profit hit $1.18bn and ITV Studios passed £1bn in revenue.

The strategy attacked the single point of failure — dependence on UK spot ads — rather than just cutting costs within it.

Production acquisitions gave ITV proven hits and formats it could sell worldwide, turning a cost line into a profit engine.

Crozier had turnaround credibility from Royal Mail, and the plan was given a clear five-year frame with measurable priorities.

Content like Downton Abbey travelled internationally, validating the bet that British programmes had global demand.

A broadcaster hostage to the ad cycle can reprice itself by owning the content it airs: sell programmes globally and the market stops valuing you as a pure advertising play.

Crozier stepped down in mid-2017 after seven years and was succeeded by easyJet's Carolyn McCall. The diversification he built proved durable: ITV Studios remained the group's growth engine, and ITV later used that production base to launch the ITVX streaming service as advertising came under renewed pressure.