STV Sees Strong Growth in First Half of 2024, Outperforming BBC and Netflix
Scottish broadcaster STV has reported strong growth in the first half of 2024, outperforming BBC and Netflix in Scotland. The company saw a successful Euro 2024 campaign and strong growth in its streaming platform, STV Player.
Scottish broadcaster STV is positioning itself against the BBC and Netflix following a successful first half of the year. While the Scotland team left Euro 2024 early, STV was still able to use the European football championships to grow audiences to its STV Player. STV’s Euros coverage tracked 3 share points ahead of ITV, with Germany vs Scotland peaking at 1.38m viewers, the largest audience of 2024 on any channel. “Our audience position remains unrivalled, with STV again the most-watched peaktime TV channel in Scotland, ahead of BBC1, and with nearly double the audience share of Netflix. Euro 2024 was a major audience and commercial success, propelling STV Player to its most successful first half-year ever in terms of streams,” said outgoing chief executive Simon Pitts. Online streams of 73 million were up 4% with online consumption of 34 million hours down 5% due to lower available drama hours. VOD advertising revenue grew 33%, and as might be expected with the Euros, 18-34 streams were up 35%; and male streams 23%. Scottish VOD revenue increased by 13% in the first half with 60% of brands combining linear and VOD. The number of active registered users grew by 33% to 1.6 million with VIP users putting on 19%. STV was the most watched peaktime TV channel in Scotland for the 7th first half-year in a row with a viewing share of 22.2% Average STV viewer spends 1 hour 45 minutes with the channel each day. STV Studios, which produces series like Criminal Record for Apple TV+ and The Fortune Hotel for ITV also enjoyed strong revenue growth.