ITV strengthens ties with YouTube by allowing full episodes to be streamed, sets up dedicated sales team
I’m a Celebrity will be among the ITV shows available on YouTube
ITV and YouTube have agreed a new distribution and commercial partnership that will see the UK commercial broadcaster stream full episodes of its shows on the Google-owned platform.
The broadcaster is following in the footsteps of UK pubcaster Channel 4 by joining YouTube’s partner programme, which allows ITV’s commercial team to sell advertising around its produced and commissioned programming on the platform.
ITV is gathering a dedicated YouTube sales team within ITV Commercial led by Abul Noor, who joins from Channel 4 in a newly created role as head of YouTube sales.
Advertisers will be able to target their campaigns by various factors including programmes, genre, viewer demographic and device type.
ITV will stream full episodes of some of its biggest shows across all genres, including entertainment, documentary, reality, daytime, sport and news, including content both made by ITV Studios and commissioned by ITV.
Titles include I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, The Masked Singer, An Audience With Kylie, Olivia Marries Her Match, Ferne McCann: My Family & Me, Bullseye, You Bet! and its soaps. Hundreds of hours of ITV programmes will be made available, the broadcaster said.
Genre-based channels including ITV News and ITV Sport will be developed alongside channels for ITV Daytime shows including This Morning and Loose Women and broader show-specific offerings such as Love Island or I’m a Celebrity.
Zoo 55, ITV Studios’ fledgling digital content label, will manage ITV and ITV Studios’ YouTube presence, which also includes The Graham Norton Show, Hell’s Kitchen, The Voice Global and natural history-focused channel Our World.
In addition, ITV will be creating and developing clips, compilations and fan content around its most popular brands specially tailored to the YouTube audience.
ITV said partnering with YouTube is part of its strategy to deliver “maximum choice” to viewers and to maximise reach and viewing opportunities by having a presence in a growing range of viewing environments alongside linear and its streaming service ITVX.
The move comes after YouTube’s head of TV and film content partnerships in the UK, Neil Price, encouraged Content London delegates last week to upload more full-length episodes to the platform as its popularity continues to surge.
Kevin Lygo, MD of ITV Media & Entertainment, said: “This partnership is part of our continuing strategic approach to maximise reach and viewing opportunities for audiences, wherever they choose to watch, alongside the successful and thriving ITVX, and our market-leading commercial TV channels.”
Kelly Williams, MD of ITV Commercial, said: “Working with YouTube provides our advertisers with even more ways to engage with audiences in premium brand-safe content from the nation’s best loved TV shows, with a wide selection of targeting options.
“ITV Commercial’s sales team will be selling the inventory around all our YouTube content, and working alongside ITV Studios and Zoo 55 we will be creating opportunities for clients across a wide span of genres and programmes beyond ITV’s commissioned longform content.”
Alison Lomax, MD of YouTube in the UK and Ireland, said: “ITV is one of the UK’s most beloved TV broadcasters and is home to a hugely diverse range of content.
“We are thrilled to be strengthening our partnership, which will see hundreds of hours of programmes made available on YouTube for the first time. Through full episodes, clips, compilations and brand-new fan content, audiences will be able to forge even deeper connections with the shows they love.”
