ITV must now be a bargain. The current team clearly are an issue but you'd think the big American companies would recognise the bargain.

The yield is also high and can be reinvested. That really does limit the down side. You can even win here if it drops further!

UBS note today:
"ITV has acquired Leftfield Entertainment, a long-term target and in line with the strategy of US expansion and acquiring scalable assets to take it to the position of the largest unscripted independent producer in the US. Leftfield has been acquired from its founder and CEO Brent Montgomery for an initial cash payment of $360m for 80% of Leftfield, with further potential payments dependent upon Leftfield's continued delivery of significant profit growth. In 2013, it delivered $38m EBITDA on a pro-forma basis (assuming FY of Sirens), implying just over 12x EBITDA on initial payment. This should have a low to mid-single digit positive impact on ITV consensus EPS for 2015E and leave ITV net debt in H114E.
ITV expects Leftfield to deliver strong growth at a high margin from 2014 onwards, likely at the level of the group and higher than the overall production business, driven by its acquisition of Sirens and new JVs coming through. There are put and call options in place to buy the remaining 20% of Leftfield (call three years, put and call at the end of year five). The total maximum consideration for 100% of Leftfield is $800m; however, this would only be locked in if Leftfield delivers average EBITDA of at least $130m pa between years three and five.
Leftfield is an independent producer of mainly reality programmes with main successes including Pawn Stars (largest show on History Channel), Counting Cars, American Restoration & Real Housewives of New Jersey. Proforma numbers mentioned incorporate Sirens Media, which Leftfield acquired last year, and the impact on earnings includes two joint ventures with Loud Television and Outpost Entertainment. Together these businesses produce more than 300 hours of unscripted programming for over 30 US networks.
ITV is trading on 13x forward EPS vs. the subsector on 14x and we would expect this move to be taken positively. Our PT is DCF derived."

Interim 15th May

A UK Company buying into the US? food for thought so another fence sitting exercise for me for now on this one.

Added (again) @ 188.0 he who dares Stan :O)

Interim Management Statement

ITV growth strategy remains on track

ITV has published the following interim management statement in advance of the Company's Annual General Meeting to be held at 11 a.m. today.

· Total external revenues up 2% to £585m (2013: £571m)
· Broadcast & Online revenues up 3% at £480m (2013: £465m) driven by 2% growth in NAR as expected and 14% increase in Online, Pay & Interactive
· ITV Studios set to deliver good revenue growth over the full year, although the phasing of programme delivery in 2014 means Q1 is down 4%
· Completed the acquisition of 80% of Leftfield, the fast growing US independent producer, as we continue to build our international content business
· On track to deliver £10m cost savings over the full year
· ITV Family NAR is forecast to be ahead of the market, up 7% over H1, with initial indications that July will be positive

Brokers seem to be generally underwhelmed by the figures, but expect a sizeable increase in advertising revenue from the World Cup. Lets hope England go through a few of the stages, otherwise...............

Added again Harry @ 183.0 this morning, this is long term for me.

Long Term, Chris hope your doing well bud. Whats your long term period months or a year or so. Cheers.

PS, harry I think England will get through the group.

But remember a lot of fotty fans now just watch football for footbal no matter who is playing.

You can bet when Brazil are on, the British will be viewing.

At least twelve months mate.

Cheers Chris.

Investec has sounded a cautious note on ITV, saying that some may have expected more from the terrestrial broadcaster with its first-quarter update.

The broker maintained a 'hold' stance on the shares with a 195p target price, saying that the stock's valuation "looks quite full versus media peers".

World Cup may boost ITV sales despite England's early exit from tournament in Brazil
By JONATHON HOPKINS
PUBLISHED: 21:55, 4 July 2014 | UPDATED: 08:56, 5 July 2014

Despite England’s early exit from the tournament in Brazil, the prospect of some mouthwatering weekend games made up for the disappointment, and commercial broadcaster ITV has not seemed to suffer too much from the blow.

Indeed the TV firm – which is sharing World Cup coverage with the BBC – saw its shares get a boost from a note by broker UBS, which returned the stock to a buy rating after a recent pull back, citing a compelling valuation. Interestingly, the broker also raised the possibility that the 7.5 per cent stake that satellite broadcast rival BSkyB still holds in ITV could be placed in the market or sold to a strategic investor.

The BSkyB holding is the rump of a 17.9 per cent stake bought in a surprise move in November 2006 to block a potential takeover of ITV by the cable media company NTL, now part of Virgin Media.

BSkyB sold a 10.4 per cent stake in ITV in February 2010 for £196m, or 48.5p a share, making a loss of around £350m on its original investment. However, with the stock now trading at 183.8p, up 0.1p on the day, the remaining holding could more than make this up.

Sky said it would retain its remaining holding for the medium term and remain a ‘committed shareholder’.

However UBS argues that there is potential for BSkyB to sell the remaining stake as part of its plan to create Sky Europe, given the higher gearing that the satellite TV group would be taking on. The broker thinks it is also possible that BSkyB might instead transfer the shares to its US parent Fox as part of the deal which will see it acquire its stakes in Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia to form Sky Europe. UBS thinks this would also be viewed positively by the market as the ITV stake could then be seen as a strategic holding.

ITV will report first-half results at the end of July, with UBS forecasting revenue growth of 6.6 per cent driven by a World Cup advertising boost, although it thinks England’s exit is likely to mean it is hard for the group to exceed this level.

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2681020/MARKET-REPORT-World-Cup-boost-ITV-sales-despite-England-exit.html

British Sky Broadcasting has sold a shareholding of approximately 6.4% in ITV to Liberty Global Incorporated, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Global.

The sale by Sky consists of 259,820,065 ITV shares at 185p per share for an aggregate consideration of approximately £481m. Sky intends to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.



Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

Closed a couple of spread bets (be rude not to) @ 206.0

Resistance 210.0 chart looks way over bought. Target still 230.0 long term or sooner if buyout occurs.

Half Yearly Report

ITV on track to deliver another year of growth

Revenue growth delivered by all parts of the business
· Total external revenues up 7% to £1,225m
· ITV Family NAR up 7% ahead of the market, as expected
· Online, Pay & Interactive up 20% to £67m
· Total ITV Studios revenues up 2% to £402m

Another period of double digit profit growth
· EBITA before exceptional items up 11% at £322m
· Broadcast & Online EBITA up 10% to £250m
· ITV Studios EBITA up 14% to £72m
· Adjusted PBT up 16% at £312m
· Adjusted EPS up 15% at 6.1p

Further investment in content - ITV Studios and on-screen
· Completed acquisition of 80% of Leftfield Entertainment
· Acquisitions coming through as expected
· Investing in organic growth of our international scripted business
· Successful launch of ITV Encore - ITVBe on track to launch later this year
· ITV SOV down 3% in H1, improved from Q1
· Further strong growth in long form video requests, up 20%

Positive outlook for full year and next phase of our strategy
· Total cost savings of around £15m for the full year - £5m ahead of original target
· ITV Family NAR expected to be up 4% to 5% in Q3 and up around 6% in the nine months to 30 September. We will significantly outperform the market over the full year
· Online, Pay & Interactive will deliver strong revenue growth, at least in line with H1
· Our acquisitions will ensure continued good growth in ITV Studios this year and into next year, and we will see a return to good organic growth in 2015 helped by investment in scripted
· Looking ahead we are committed to our original vision for ITV
· We see clear opportunities for investing in growth across the business - in content, online, pay and advertising
· As our strategy evolves we will continue to rebalance the business and grow new revenue streams and there will be an increasing emphasis on international content creation and distribution

Delivering increased shareholder returns
· The Board has declared an interim dividend of 1.4p which will be roughly a third of the full year dividend
· The Board has committed to at least 20% annual growth in the ordinary dividend over the next three years

Having another go to crack resistance @ 210p

Credit Suisse New Target 250p outperform.

ITV breaks out today. Wait till confirmation early wednesday before going long. Plenty of take over talk here,.