ITV heralds strong start for new streaming platform ITVX

UK-based broadcaster ITV is claiming a strong start for its new streaming hub ITVX, which launched amid great fanfare on December 8. According to ITV, the platform saw a 55% year on year increase in streaming hours for its first month (December 8 to January 7). Across the same period, ITV’s online users increase by 65%.

ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said: “With over 15,000 hours of programming and films on ITVX, our new service is a destination for discovery and is engaging users as they discover the quality and depth of our content. It is great to see so many new viewers coming into ITVX. The FIFA World Cup has been an important part of that.”

ITVX is a replacement and upgrade of its predecessor ITV Hub. A key difference with the new service is its heavy emphasis on original programming, with new commissions including cold war drama A Spy Among Friends, teen drama Tell Me Everything and period drama The Confessions of Frannie Langton. McCall stressed that this tranche of content was also performing well, attracting new and light viewers to IT: “Away from live streaming, viewers have welcomed our strong slate of commissioned launch titles exclusive to ITVX, with many viewers coming from harder to reach audiences.  Excluding the football, our streaming viewing during the month was up 29% year on year and we continue to see strong year-on-year growth in January.”

ITVX has committed to offering new and exclusive programmes every week. McCall said the new service had been received well by advertisers. “ITVX has landed really well with advertisers who see the value of the scale and reach of the audience they can now target in a high quality, brand safe and measurable streaming environment.”