ITV (UK) announced at the beginning of March the launch of ITVX, the country first integrated advertising and subscription funded (AVOD/SVOD) platform that will launch later this year. It will offer new series with exclusive online premiers every week, including A Spy Among Friends, live streamed events, blockbuster movies, exclusive themed channels.
ITVX will be viewer led: viewers can choose to watch thousands of hours of content for free in an advertising funded tier or trade up to a subscription service which provides all that content ad-free. In a step change to its traditional approach the company adopts a digital first windowing strategy, premiering much of its new content first on ITVX and months later on linear channels.
In addition, it will provide content from partners such as BritBox, which showcases the biggest streaming collection of UK series from BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and includes exclusives such as Doctor Who. The service has recently surpassed 733,000 subscribers, ahead of all business plan targets showing the popularity of the brand.
Carolyn McCall, ITV’s Chief Executive, said: ‘The digital acceleration builds on everything we have achieved in phase one of our “More Than TV” strategy. ITVX will be a free service supported by adverts, with a compelling subscription proposition. This is fantastic for viewers, as it will provide a simplified and seamless experience with thousands of hours of free content made up of both library and original exclusive content’.
‘We are supercharging our streaming business, fundamentally shifting our focus to think digital first, as well as optimising our broadcast channels, by continuing to attract unrivalled mass audiences. In doing so we are responding to changing viewing habits, but also the evolving needs from our advertisers. This will enable us to continue to be both commercial viewers and advertisers’ first choice’, she completed.
Kevin Lygo, ITV’s MD of Media and Entertainment, added: ‘Viewing habits are changing rapidly and our plans really scale up our streaming ambitions. Our broadcast channels are very important to what we do, and we are still focused on delivering what ITV does better than anyone in commercial TV: creating programs that bring audiences together. However, we know we have to deliver our programs to as many people as possible in all the ways they want to watch them. ITVX is the cornerstone of ITV’s digital acceleration’.
Until the launch of ITVX, ITV Hub will continue to be the free streaming home of ITV, with ongoing plans to scale up the amount of content on the service in the run up to ITVX launch. It currently has 4,000 hours of content while ITVX will have around 15,000 hours at launch. BritBox will remain the standalone subscription home of the best of British content including forthcoming originals Why Don’t They Ask Evans? and The Dry, until both offerings will come together on ITVX.
Rufus Radcliffe, ITV’s MD of Streaming, concluded: ‘2021 was a record year forour streaming services giving us strong foundations from which to supercharge our streaming strategy. We are investing significantly in new and exclusive programs, which will be free to stream, and also in technology and product design to make the viewer experience and interface a premium one’.
As well as “streaming first” exclusives, all the drama and comedy ITV commissions will be made available to viewers in one go on ITVX for free, as soon as the first episode has aired on ITV’s linear channels. TIn the same service, subscription gives upgrade access to a premium tier where all of the free content can be viewed, without the ads, as well as a growing range of partner content, with exciting announcements to follow in due course.
A wealth of dramas will now stream first and for free on ITVX before arriving six to nine months later on ITV’s broadcast channel, including a limited series based on the New York Times best-selling book from Ben Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends, starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce, Nolly starring Helena Bonham Carter, Confessions of Frannie Langton starring Karla-Simone Spence, Sophie Cookson and Patrick Martins, Lenny Henry’s six-part drama The Little Birds and Litvinenko starring David Tennant, among others.
Other exclusive content: new comedies using “Deep Fake” techniques to create hilarious celebrity set-ups, as well as a feature-length film finale for Plebs; factual content such us The Case Against Cosby, a premium documentary exposing new truths about accusations against Bill Cosby with exclusive access to survivors, as well as a landmark natural history series, A Year on Planet Earth, with many more streaming premieres to be revealed in the run up to launch.
The best of ITV (Broadchurch), documentaries (Up), entertainment formars (Love Island), TV Shows (Victoria, A Confession, Quiz and Unforgotten); US series (WarnerMedia’s The Sex Lives of College Girls and All American); Live Events (FIFA World Cup; I’m a Celebrity); 500 blockbuster films (Brideshead Revisited) and 20 themed channels (FAST) available at launch (Hell’s Kitchen US, True Crime, The Chase).
