ITV Studios – the parent company behind labels including Blumhouse Television and Tomorrow Studios – is not for sale, ITV boss Carolyn McCall has categorically told PvNew.
Rumors began floating last fall that McCall, who has been at the helm of ITV since 2018, was considering selling off the conglomerate or potentially parceling some of it off. But in an interview with PvNew McCall put paid to that idea.
“We don’t really comment on speculation but I will say ITV Studios is not for sale,” McCall said. “We’re an integrated producer-broadcaster so the benefits of that integration are very – it’s very important to Studios, but it’s also very important to the network.”
McCall also flatly denied plans to break up the company: “We wouldn’t do that. Because that wouldn’t make any sense.”
ITV Studios is the production arm of U.K. media conglomerate ITV, which also includes multiple networks and a new streaming service, ITVX. Among the labels under the ITV Studios banner are natural history filmmakers Plimsoll Productions and Quay Street Productions, which made drama series “Nolly,” starring Helena Bonham Carter as fallen soap star Noele Gordon.
The ITV chief did admit that the London stock market “really didn’t get Studios” and “really, really worried about [ITV Studios in] America,” which is potentially what has led to the rumors of a sell-off. “I don’t think they understood how the money was giving us return, it was really accretive,” she explains.
Which is why when McCall joined ITV she swiftly embarked on “tidying up” the American arm of the company. “We merged businesses, we closed businesses,” she explains. She also set up a new adult animation studio, called Work Friends, with Tomorrow Studios founder Marty Adelstein.
“I think people are now kind of looking at it thinking, ‘Wow, well what’s gonna happen with that?’ But we’ve not said that [we’re selling it], we’ve just said, ‘Yes, this is a very valuable business. This is fantastic, and we’re going to continue to grow it.’ We’re going to expand by geography, by genre, and by customer.”
Pictured above: Helena Bonham Carter in “Nolly”
