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Registered number:
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
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COMPANY INFORMATION
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CONTENTS
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GROUP BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
Hat Trick would like to highlight the following achievements:
∙Adjusted Profit after Tax of £5.9m.
∙Have I Got News For You US launched successfully on CNN, with ten episodes airing in 2024 and a further twenty episodes commissioned for 2025.
∙Have I Got News For You in the UK continues to be one of the BBC’s most watched programmes.
∙How to get to Heaven from Belfast, written by Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, enters production for Netflix.
∙The award winning Smoggie Queens is picked up for a second series
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GROUP STRATEGIC REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
The directors present their Strategic Report for the year ended 31 December 2024.
Business review
With a library of long-running, award-winning television programming, we are an industry-leading content creator and rights owner. Our goal remains simple; to make highly successful programmes for profit. We do this in two ways. We develop, create and exploit content in the areas of Comedy, Drama and Entertainment. We also use our substantial creative and business support experience to make investments in early-stage content creation companies, with a view to helping them reach their full potential more quickly than they otherwise might be able to. Content creation Hat Trick delivered programmes for BBC1, BBC2, Channel 5, CNN and The CW in 2024. The 67th and 68th series of Have I Got News For You were produced for the BBC and after thirty years a US version was launched on CNN in the run up to the 2024 presidential election. It quickly became one of CNN’s most popular programmes and twenty more episodes were commissioned for 2025. We continue to work with other companies on co-productions, including Whose Line is it anyway? (Angst Productions) and Mastermind (Hindsight Productions). In scripted, we produced a much-loved Christmas special of Outnumbered for BBC1, eight years after the previous one. We also launched the first series of Smoggie Queens, which has been re-commissioned for a second series, as well as winning the best comedy programme at the broadcast digital awards. Rights exploitation We continue to exploit most of our extensive programming catalogue in-house through Hat Trick International (HTI), although as the cost of scripted programming continues to rise, we continue to expand our network of distribution and financing partners to meet increasing deficits. HTI continues to benefit from Hat Trick’s strong production pipeline, as well as through its relationships with other production companies. Investments With the addition of Strong Watch Studios last year, we now have five associates / joint ventures covering multiple genres: HTM Television (Drama), Plum Pictures (Factual Entertainment), Livewire Pictures (Entertainment), Emporium Productions (Factual Entertainment) and Strong Watch Studios (Digital).
Foreign exchange risk
The Group operates primarily within the UK and so has limited exposure to foreign exchange movements. However, any material exposure is hedged on a case by case basis. Credit risk A large percentage of the Group's programming is conducted with the BBC and other established broadcasters. Therefore, the company does not have a significant exposure to credit defaults. Liquidity risk The Group has sufficient cash reserves to cover day to day working capital requirements. The working capital of the business is closely monitored to ensure these commitments are met.
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GROUP STRATEGIC REPORT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
Hat Trick uses Adjusted Profit after Tax (profit after tax, excluding amortisation and share options charge) as its key performance indicator.
Adjusted profit after tax was £5.9m in the period, £4m higher than 2023, due to the timing of audio-visual expenditure credits.
We consider the number of series in production and delivered in the year to be Hat Trick’s main non-financial key performance indicators.
There were ten series delivered to broadcasters in 2024 (2023 – seven).
This report was approved by the board on 25 September 2025 and signed on its behalf.
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DIRECTORS' REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
The directors present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024.
The directors who served during the year were:
The profit for the year, after taxation, amounted to £5,946,467 (2023 - £1,943,808).
The directors have paid interim dividends of £1,000,064 (2023 - £4,700,547). The directors do not recommend the payment of a final dividend (2023 - £Nil).
The directors are responsible for preparing the Group Strategic Report, the Directors' Report and the consolidated financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:
∙select suitable accounting policies for the Group's financial statements and then apply them consistently;
∙make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
∙prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Group will continue in business.
The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and the Group and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Hat Trick benefits from a raft of returning series, as well as a strong pipeline of new programming in various stages of development.
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DIRECTORS' REPORT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
There have been no significant events affecting the Group since the reporting date.
Under section 487(2) of the Companies Act 2006, Sopher + Co LLP will be deemed to have been reappointed as auditors 28 days after these financial statements were sent to members or 28 days after the latest date prescribed for filing the accounts with the registrar, whichever is earlier.
This report was approved by the board on
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF HAT TRICK HOLDINGS (2019) LIMITED
We have audited the financial statements of Hat Trick Holdings (2019) Limited (the 'parent Company') and its subsidiaries (the 'Group') for the year ended 31 December 2024, which comprise the Group Statement of Comprehensive Income, the Group and Company Statements of Financial Position, the Group Statement of Cash Flows, the Group and Company Statement of Changes in Equity and the related notes, including a summary of significant accounting policies.
In our opinion the financial statements:
∙give a true and fair view of the state of the Group's and of the parent Company's affairs as at 31 December 2024 and of the Group's profit for the year then ended;
∙have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
∙have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors' responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the United Kingdom, including the Financial Reporting Council's Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Group's or the parent Company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
The directors are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report, other than the financial statements and our Auditors' Report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF HAT TRICK HOLDINGS (2019) LIMITED (CONTINUED)
misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:
∙the information given in the Group Strategic Report and the Directors' Report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
∙the Group Strategic Report and the Directors' Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the Group and the parent Company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Group Strategic Report or the Directors' Report.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
∙adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent Company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
∙the parent Company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
∙certain disclosures of directors' remuneration specified by law are not made; or
∙we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
As explained more fully in the Directors' Responsibilities Statement set out on page 4, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the Group's and the parent Company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the Group or the parent Company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF HAT TRICK HOLDINGS (2019) LIMITED (CONTINUED)
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an Auditors' Report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these Group financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
Our approach to identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, was as follows:
∙the engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
∙we identified the laws and regulations applicable to the Company through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the television programmes production industry;
∙we focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the Company, including the Companies Act 2006, taxation legislation and data protection, anti-bribery, employment, environmental and health and safety legislation;
∙we assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence; and
∙identified laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We assessed the susceptibility of the Company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:
∙making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
∙considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations; and
∙understanding the design of the Company’s remuneration policies.
To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:
∙performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
∙tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions;
∙assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates were indicative of potential bias; and
∙investigated the rationale behind significant or unusual transactions.
In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
∙agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
∙enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and
∙reviewing correspondence with HMRC, relevant regulators and the Company’s legal advisors.
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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF HAT TRICK HOLDINGS (2019) LIMITED (CONTINUED)
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any. Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Auditors' Report.
This report is made solely to the Company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditors' Report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Company and the Company's members, as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
for and on behalf of
Chartered Accountants
Statutory Auditors
5 Elstree Gate
Elstree Way
Borehamwood
Hertfordshire
WD6 1JD
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CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
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CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2024
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the board and were signed on its behalf on 25 September 2025.
The notes on pages 17 to 39 form part of these financial statements.
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COMPANY STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2024
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the board and were signed on its behalf on
The notes on pages 17 to 39 form part of these financial statements.
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