Line of Duty maker doubles profit thanks to Netflix and BBC streaming deals

The production company behind the likes of Line of Duty, The Diplomat and Bodyguard doubled its profit in 2023 thanks to deals with Netflix and the BBC.

World Productions, which is based in London, completed work on drama Fifteen Love for Netflix and the second series of Vigil for the BBC.

Owned by ITV Studios, the business also made Malpractice and Until I Kill You in the year.

World Productions has also previously been behind drams such as United and The Great Train Robbery.

The business is one of around 50 subsidiaries of ITV Studios which is part of the wider ITV group.

According to newly-filed documents with Companies House, World Productions saw its revenue rise from £31.6m to £45m in 2023 while its pre-tax profit jumped from £2.1m to £4.2m.

A statement signed off by the board said: “The directors focus continues to be on growth of the business through the production of high quality content for broadcast and distribution both in the UK and internationally.”

The company was founded in 1990 by Tony Garnett and has been owned by ITV since 2017.

It was originally known as Ashloff Limited before changing its name to Island World Productions and then to World Productions.

The company was taken over in 2012 by Marcus Evans Entertainment, the billionaire businessman who owned Ipswich Town.

The results for World Productions come after another studio owned by ITV enjoyed a bumper 2023 with its revenue rising to its highest level for eight years.

Mainstreet Pictures, which is behind the latest series of popular detective drama Unforgotten, reported a revenue of £1.9m for last year, a rise from the £1.6m it posted for 2022.

According to documents with Companies House, the firm’s pre-tax profits also increased from £509,344 to £644,203.

The studio’s revenue is the highest it has been since it reported a total of £3.5m in 2015.

ITV Studios

In March, TV reported a drop in overall sales for 2023 despite an uptick in digital revenue and a record performance from ITV Studios.

In a year in which the company repositioned itself for “higher sustainable growth,” ITV recorded a two per cent decline in total revenue, but a four per cent jump in sales at its Studios business, pushing revenue at this arm to a record. 

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 32 per cent to £489m for the year as a whole.

The decline reflected a “decline in linear advertising” as well as extra investment in the group’s digital streaming platform ITVX.

The group reported a 19 per cent growth in digital revenue, which offset a 15 per cent in linear advertising, a result of the “challenging advertising market.”