ITV’s decision to cancel the upcoming series of Love Island could cost them around £100 million.
On Monday, ITV confirmed that Love Island won’t take place this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Retail experts have since predicted that the show’s cancellation could cost them millions in advertising.
“The ITV team could be losing out on between £85-£100m based on TV ads and wider commercial deals that ITV would have been able to capitalise on during being on air,” retail expert Andy Bar told Metro.co.uk.
“This is based on last year’s estimated revenue of £77m, and I think it would have, conservatively, gone up this year by a minimum of 10% taking it to £84m just on TV advertisements alone.”
“This doesn’t include the wider commercial deals such as in-app (ITV) sponsorships, so the ad cost will have gone up,” he added.
Love Island’s cancellation was confirmed by show bosses on Monday.
In a statement, they said: “ITV2 are sad to announce that Love Island series 7 will move to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“We have tried every which way to make Love Island this summer but logistically it’s just not possible to produce it in a way that safeguards the wellbeing of everyone involved and that for us is the priority,” Kevin Lygo, Director of Television at ITV, said.
“In normal circumstances we would be preparing very soon to travel out to the location in Mallorca to get the villa ready but clearly that’s now out of the question.”
“We are very sorry for fans of the show but making it safely is our prime concern and Love Island will be back stronger than ever in 2021,” the statement ended.
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