Annual Report 2018 Cover image: Michael Palin in North Korea Produced by ITN Productions for Channel 5 TRUSTED TO TELL THE WORLD’S STORIES. ITN is an Oscar-nominated production company that has been at the heart of the media landscape for over sixty years, internationally recognised for our quality, integrity and creativity. Combining our experience honed as one of the UK’s foremost media companies with cutting edge technology and expertise, we are the home of compelling content and technical innovation. We make the award-winning daily news programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, providing comprehensive and impartial news to the British public, with a daily accumulated peak audience of up to 11.4 million people in the UK. ITN Productions, our independent production company, produces high quality content across seven distinct areas: television production; sports; advertising; industry-specific programming; education content; entertainment and news footage syndication; and post-production. Independent Television News Limited 200 Gray’s Inn Road | London | WC1X 8XZ Registered number 548648 www.itn.co.uk 3 ITN | ANNUAL REPORT 2018 Company Registration No. 00548648 (England and Wales) INDEPENDENT TELEVISION NEWS LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2018 4 CONTENTS Overview 2018 highlights 6 Business review 8 Chair’s statement 23 Governance Board of Directors 24 Executive Team 26 Strategic Report 30 Directors’ Report 34 Directors’ Responsibility Statement 37 Independent Auditor’s Report 38 Accounts Accounts 41 5 ITN | ANNUAL REPORT 2018 AT A GLANCE GROUP REVENUE GROUP OPERATING PROFIT £m £m £126.9m £6.6m 129.7 126.4 126.9 7.1 6.9 6.6 119.7 112.0 5.8 5.8 14 15 16 17 18 14 15 16 17 18 ITN PRODUCTIONS REVENUE ITN PRODUCTIONS OPERATING PROFIT £m £m £38.0m £3.8m 42.8 4.6 4.3 38.6 38.0 3.8 34.1 3.5 29.0 3.1 14 15 16 17 18 14 15 16 17 18 6 REVIEW OF THE YEAR 11.4m 30 DAILY MAX AUDIENCE REACH BROADCAST COMMISSIONS FOR ITN NEWS PROGRAMMES 34 42 AWARDS WON ADVERTISING PROJECTS 544 1800+ ITN PRODUCTIONS FOOTBALL MATCHES BROADCAST HOURS FILMED AND EDITED 7 ITN | ANNUAL REPORT 2018 AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais 8 REVIEW OF THE YEAR HIGH-IMPACT JOURNALISM DATA, DEMOCRACY AND DIRTY TRICKS Channel 4 News Investigation In 2018 one story really stood out – the Importantly, it also exposed a new 21st Cambridge Analytica scandal. Over a century industry subverting democracies period of four months, Channel 4 News all over the world by disseminating carried out an undercover investigation anonymous content online and using into the data company credited social media to influence voters. Data, with putting Donald Trump into the Democracy and Dirty Tricks was a White House. landmark journalistic series with huge global implications for every democratic The result was extraordinary footage country on earth. beamed around the world, showing the company’s bosses boasting of In December, Channel 4 News were manipulating elections, spreading honoured at the British Journalism “untraceable” propaganda, and using Awards, winning Investigation of bribes and honeytraps. the Year 2018. In February 2019, Channel 4 News’ Cambridge Analytica The global scandal led directly to the investigation won Royal Television collapse of Cambridge Analytica six Society awards for scoop, home and weeks after broadcast, billions of dollars foreign coverage of the year, with the wiped off the value of Facebook and judging panel calling it a “global scoop Mark Zuckerberg being brought before that changed the way the world works.” the House and Senate to explain and apologise for the data breach (pictured). 9 ITN | ANNUAL REPORT 2018 HIGH-IMPACT JOURNALISM SALISBURY POISONING ITV News World Exclusive Interview In an exclusive interview with ITV News correspondent Rupert Evelyn, Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley spoke about the sealed box of perfume he found and later gave to his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess containing a deadly nerve agent which killed her. The tragic incident took place in Amesbury, seven miles away from the town of Salisbury where former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by suspected Russian agents using the Novichok nerve agent known as A-234. INSIDE MOSUL ITV News Exclusive Interview In 2017, so-called Islamic State’s militants were forced out of Mosul after a battle which left at least 10,000 people dead. Six months on, an ITV News team travelled to Iraq to witness the devastation residents had been left with. “Finding someone to tell their story proved almost impossible,” says correspondent Emma Murphy. “We came across more bodies than we did people. All this time on, the dead remained in the broken shells of homes where they were either executed by IS or killed in airstrikes.” 10 REVIEW OF THE YEAR NHS AT 70: HEALING MINDS 5 News Series As the NHS marked its 70th anniversary, the 5 News team were given rare access to film in a mental health unit over three months to see what life is really like on the frontline of mental health care. This special series went inside Langley Green Hospital in Crawley to speak to doctors, nurses, mental health workers, patients and families to paint a vivid picture of the current state of the UK’s mental health provision. The 5 News team sought to show the reality for people with mental health problems by giving them a voice during their darkest times and breaking the stigma around mental illness. GAZA BORDER PROTEST CAMPS Channel 4 News Jonathan Rugman travelled to Gaza for the anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. Over a period of days, the Israeli army killed large numbers LONDON AWARD of protesters they said threatened to breach the border fence. At significant Nina Hossain risk, Jonathan and his team reported on the protests and the military operation, witnessing violence and loss of life. In ITV News London presenter Nina 2018 he was called by the UN to give Hossain was named Nations and evidence to the Gaza Commission of Regions Presenter of the Year for Inquiry of the UN High Commissioner for the second year running, with Human Rights. The UN team used clips the judges citing her “authority, from his reports as part of its evidence. sensitivity and charm”. 11 ITN | ANNUAL REPORT 2018 MICHAEL PALIN IN NORTH KOREA Produced for Channel 5 On the eve of President Donald Trump’s Requiring two years of planning historic summit with North Korea’s and a series of complex high Chairman Kim Jong-Un, acclaimed level negotiations in order to gain documentarian Michael Palin travelled unprecedented access, Michael and his throughout the country, seeking to team were able to experience North I have never had better understand the lifestyles of the Korea in a way that few Westerners have many millions who live, work and have ever done previously. the same sense families in the DPRK. “ “To visit North Korea was an opportunity of fascination and Covering more than 1,300 miles from I couldn’t turn down,” said Michael, who revelation as on south to north, this landmark series for was nominated for a Royal Television Channel 5 took viewers into the heart of Society Presenter of the Year award for this journey North Korea, from the capital Pyongyang his work on the series. to the snowy peaks of Mount Paektu. - Michael Palin 12 REVIEW OF THE YEAR GLOBAL WITNESS The 2018 football World Cup kicked off against a backdrop of spy poisoning, FRANKIE GOES alleged state-sponsored doping, TO RUSSIA threats of ultra football hooliganism and perhaps the worst relations between Produced for BBC Two Russia and the West since the Cold War. The acerbic comedian Frankie Boyle visited the nation in the run-up to the 2018 tournament, looking behind the stereotypes and half-truths of Russian football and culture with his trademark provocative humour. Over two hour- long programmes Frankie joined a World Cup volunteer induction course Who better to (complete with chemical suit and face send to Russia on mask), met some of Russia’s most “ dedicated football fans and investigated reconnaissance than the facilities awaiting the English fans noted diplomat who made the trip to support their team. Frankie Boyle? - Guardian 13 ITN | ANNUAL REPORT 2018 WORLD EVENTS After forming an innovative joint venture partnership with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) the previous year, the focus for ITN THE ROAD TO Productions Sport in 2018 was on preparing for the upcoming IAAF World Athletics DOHA 2019 Championships in Doha. The seventeenth edition of the Championships will take place in September and IAAF World Athletics Championships October 2019 at the renovated multi-purpose Khalifa International Stadium. During the Championships, billions of television viewers will watch more than 3,500 athletes from over 200 countries competing in the third biggest sporting event in the world. Khalifa Stadium 14 REVIEW OF THE YEAR Nailed the mood “of the nation - Daily Mail THE ROYAL WEDDING ITV News Special Programme Julie Etchingham and Phillip Schofield presented an extended live programme on the much-anticipated Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, broadcast live from a specially constructed studio among the gathered crowds at Windsor. The pair were joined by presenters and correspondents including Mary Nightingale, Royal Editor Chris Ship, Nina Hossain and Charlotte Hawkins, who were with wedding guests and the public in Windsor, and around the country, as they came together to celebrate. James Mates led service commentary from the chapel, while Rageh Omaar joined Sentebale - the charity co-founded by Prince Harry - for celebrations in Lesotho.