STV has upped its majority stake in Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back indie Rumpus Media and reaped the rewards of the recent deal with Patrick Melrose maker Two Cities, as the Scottish outfit posted a profit and revenue boost.
STV’s full-year results this morning revealed for the first time that production arm STV Studios now owns 99% of Rumpus Media, a deal that came less than a year after the exits of Rumpus founders Emily Hudd and Iain Wimbush, who had turned the indie into a prolific unscripted producer across a decade. They were replaced by Josephine Brassey. The company’s credits include Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back and The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan.
STV acquired 40% of Rumpus when it bought Greenbird from Keshet in July 2023 for £21.4M ($27.7M) and that became 99% around eight months ago following the trigger of what is called a “bad leaver” provision in the pair’s share purchase agreement, according to today’s results, which said the additional 59% of Rumpus transferred to STV for a “nominal consideration.”
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During the second half of last year, STV also took a 51% majority stake in another unscripted producer, Hello Halo. Earlier in 2024, it upped its stake in Patrick Melrose producer Two Cities to 51%. Two Cities, which is behind hit BBC drama Blue Lights – already commissioned for a third and fourth season – and upcoming Sky drama Amadeus from Joe Barton, contributed £31.5M of revenue to STV’s results, amounting to around one sixth, the results said.
In a year of severe economic headwinds, being shrewdly acquisitive with its majority stakes paid off for STV, which runs a channels business, digital biz and the STV Studios productions arm. The company saw revenue growth of 12% to £188M and adjusted operating profit tipped up slightly to £20.6M. “Our strategy of acquiring stakes in high potential production companies continues to deliver for the business,” the results noted.
In the STV Studios production arm, turnover was up 26% to £84.1M and adjusted operating profit rose 18% to £6.1M as the division won more than 50 commissions. Big business from the year included a second season of Peter Capaldi-starring Apple TV+ series Criminal Record and a first greenlight from Netflix, a drama about the death of Rachel Nickell titled The Witness.
At the end of last month, STV Studios’ order book stood at £76M, it said, lower than earlier in the year as scripted programmes had been delivered. “The rate of commission wins is slower in the current market than previously, but our labels continue to win and have momentum to carry forward,” added the results.
Last year also saw the arrival of a new CEO, ex-ITV exec Rufus Radcliffe, and he will unveil a strategy refresh in several weeks’ time to take the company up to 2030.
“I’ve been with STV for 4 months and it’s clear that the foundations of the business are strong,” he said. “2024 was a good year for STV. We delivered a strong performance against a challenging economic backdrop, with results in line with expectations. We are controlling those elements we can, in line with our strategy, and are very much on track to ensure that STV is in the best possible shape when the market recovers.”
Radcliffe said the strategy refresh will “build on the strengths of our existing strategy and take it to the next stage of development and growth.”
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