ITV to launch integrated AVoD/SVoD streaming service ITVX this year

UK commercial broadcaster ITV is launching an integrated AVoD/SVoD streaming service later this year called ITVX.

Carolyn McCall

ITVX will operate both as free a AVoD tier and a paid-for SVoD service, with the latter also providing access to ITV/BBC joint-venture SVoD platform BritBox.

Both the AVoD and SVoD tiers will offer viewers a range of exclusive new series every week, live events, blockbuster movies, free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels and box sets. Series will range from ITV dramas to documentaries, US series, comedies and reality shows.

In line with the launch, ITV will adopt a digital-first windowing strategy, through which much of its new content will launch on ITVX first, before airing on ITV’s linear channels six to nine months later.

Dramas to launch on ITVX first will include A Spy Among Friends, starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce; Nolly, starring Helena Bonham Carter; Confessions of Frankie Langton; Lenny Henry’s The Little Birds; and Litvinenko, starring David Tennant.

Exclusive comedies for ITVX will include a new series creating celebrity set-ups and a feature-length film finale for Plebs. Factual content will include doc The Case Against Cosby and natural history series A Year on Planet Earth.

As well as ‘streaming-first’ exclusives, all ITV’s drama and comedy commissions will be made available to viewers in one go on ITVX as soon as the first episode has aired on the linear channels. The same will be true of the majority of reality series.

US series to debut on ITVX will include popular classics like The OC, One Tree Hill, The 100, Supernatural and Veronica Mars, while ITV has secured a content deal with WarnerMedia International Television Distribution for the UK premieres of programmes like The Sex Lives of College Girls and All American.

Box sets on the service will include ITV dramas Broadchurch, Victoria, A Confession, Quiz, Unforgotten and Brideshead Revisited, as well as docuseries like Up and reality shows such as Love Island.

As well as being able to live stream ITV’s linear channels, ITVX will present a set of pop-up FAST channels that will change and evolve according to viewer preferences and popularity. Twenty FAST channels will be available at launch, including Hell’s Kitchen US, True Crime, The Oxford Detectives, 90s Favourites and The Chase. ITV intends to offer a new themed channel every week.

Until the launch of the streaming service later this year, ITV’s existing AVoD platform, 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 the ITVX launch. ITV Hub currently has 4,000 hours of content while ITVX will have around 15,000 hours at launch.

Carolyn McCall, ITV’s CEO, said: “The digital acceleration we are announcing today 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 – it will provide a simplified and seamless experience with thousands of hours of free content made up of both library and original exclusive content. The subscription tier will provide a premium offering and includes all of the content ad-free as well as BritBox and future SVoD content partners.

“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 ITV to continue to be both commercial viewers and advertisers’ first choice.”