ITV’s renewal plan pays off

The British broadcaster ITV declared victory in its transformation plan yesterday, returning cash to shareholders after strong international growth and new revenue streams helped it to beat 2014 profit forecasts.

Adam Crozier took over the top job at ITV in 2010 when Britain’s biggest listed free-to-air broadcaster was on its knees, buffeted by the fluctuations of advertising markets and haemorrhaging viewers to the higher quality programming coming from the publicly owned BBC.

Asked to restore the company to its glory days of the 1990s, Mr Crozier set about expanding its production business, developing new online platforms and improving the quality of its programming.