ITV chief executive Adam Crozier steps down after seven years

ITV’s chief executive, Adam Crozier, is stepping down after seven years at the helm of the UK’s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster.

Crozier, who led a turnaround at ITV after the recession and successfully reduced the broadcaster’s reliance on advertising revenue by building up its production arm, will leave at the end of June to pursue a portfolio of roles at private and publicly listed companies.

The company’s finance director, Ian Griffiths, will step up to a new combined role of chief operating officer and finance chief and run the company for an interim period, while the chairman, Sir Peter Bazalgette, becomes executive chairman during that time. A longer-term successor to Crozier will be announced “in due course”.

Bazalgette, the man who brought Big Brother to the UK, replaced Archie Norman as chairman last May and appointed the executive search firm Spencer Stuart to find a successor for Crozier late last year.

“Adam has been talking to me and the board for some time now about his future plans,” said Bazalgette, who added that the company had a “well-developed succession plan” in place. “He has made a fantastic contribution to ITV and the board is deeply indebted to him for his strong leadership and personal dedication.”

Crozier, a former boss at the Football Association and Royal Mail, has spent the seven years since the recession attempting to diversify ITV away from its overdependence on TV ad revenues by building digital income and investing more than £1bn in building its production business.

ITV Studios, which experienced a slowdown last year with organic revenues falling by 7%, makes shows such as Victoria, Poldark, Cold Feet and The Voice for ITV and other broadcasters. ITV still relies on advertising for about half of its £3bn-plus revenues, while digital and interactive income stands at about 10% of the total.

Crozier joined ITV in January 2010 as the broadcaster struggled to recover from the post-crash recession, a time the former executive chairman Michael Grade referred to without hyperbole as a “near-death experience”.

He has received more than £27m in pay, bonus and incentive payouts during his tenure, while overseeing a recovery in ITV’s share price from about 17p in the months before he joined to more than 200p now. Crozier holds 2m shares in ITV, worth close to £4m at the broadcaster’s current share price, built up as part of his remuneration awards.

Crozier, also a former boss at ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, said: “Having spent 21 years as a chief executive across four very different industries, I now feel that the time is right for me to move to the next stage of my career and to build a portfolio of roles across the plc and private sectors.”

Crozier was appointed a non-executive director of Whitbread, the owner of Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, in January.

Analysts at Liberum said his departure may heighten speculation of a bid by Virgin Media owner Liberty Global, which owns 9.9% of ITV, or a joint takeover with Discovery.

Both companies are effectively controlled by John Malone, and came together to buy the UK TV production business All3Media, maker of shows including Midsomer Murders, Skins and The Only Way is Essex.

However, ITV’s share price barely budged following the news of Crozier’s departure, indicating investors do not believe a change in strategy or a major event such as a takeover are imminent.

“If there was a deal about to happen then Crozier wouldn’t be going,” said one City analyst. “His departure doesn’t change the strategy or valuation of the company. If Crozier thought he could leave on a high of selling the business in the immediate future, he probably would have done that.”