TV news provider ITN has reported revenue up 8 per cent to £130m in 2016 and a pre-tax profit of £2.8m (up from £2.7m).
The cost of financing the group’s final salary pension scheme (which closed to new entrants in 2010) was also flat year on year at £4.7m.
A fall in corporate bond yields led to the accounting deficit of the pension fund increasing from £106m to £159m.
ITN’s flagship programmed are ITV national news at 1.30pm, 6.30pm and 10pm/10.30pm; Channel 4 News and 5 News (broadcast at 5pm and 6.30pm).
Key achievements listed include Channel 4 News reaching 2bn video views across various platforms (mainly Facebook).
Revenues from ITN Productions increased by 26 per cent to £42.8m.
It was a year in which ITN Productions’ Watani: My Homeland secured the broadcaster’s first Oscar nomination in the Documentary Short category.
ITN Productions produced 200 hours of TV including ITN’s first daytime series for BBC One: Going Back, Giving Back; and two US series: Power Triumph Games broadcast on CBS Sports, and a third series of Killer Instinct with Chris Hansen.
ITN CEO John Hardie said: “2016 marks a pivotal year in ITN’s transformation as we forge ahead in our goal of becoming a world-class production company. The quality and breadth of our output has never been stronger as our diversification outside TV news continues apace both here and in the US.”