ITVX, U.K. broadcaster ITV’s new, free, ad-funded streaming service, had a robust launch month delivering a 55% increase in ITV’s streaming hours in the first month after its launch (Dec. 8, 2022 – Jan. 7, 2023) compared to the same period last year.
ITV’s previous streaming service was known as ITV Hub.
During the launch month ITV’s online users increased by 65% compared to the same period last year. The latter stages of the soccer World Cup were big draws while ITVX’s new exclusive content also performed strongly, attracting new viewers, ITV said in a statement on Friday.
New content driving users to the service included “A Spy Among Friends,” a cold war drama starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce; family drama “Riches,” starring Deborah Ayorinde and Hugh Quarshie; natural history documentary “A Year on Planet Earth,” presented by Stephen Fry; thriller “Without Sin,” starring Vicky McClure; game show “Loaded in Paradise”; and “Litvinenko,” about the ex-Russian spy, starring David Tennant and Mark Bonnar.
Carolyn McCall, ITV CEO, said: “It is great to see so manynewviewers coming into ITVX. The football [soccer] World Cuphas been an important part of that. Excluding the football,our underlying streaming viewing during the month was up 29% year on year and we continue to see strong year on year growth in January.
“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.
“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.
“ITVX has also landed really well with advertisers who see the increased value of the scale and reach of the audience they can now target in a high quality, brand safe and measurable streaming environment.”
According to ITV, streaming hoursmeasures the total amount of time in hours that registered users spent streaming ITV’s program content across ITV’s owned and operated platforms. It excludes viewing on third party platforms. This figure includes both ad-funded and subscription streaming and represents around three quarters of ITV’s total streaming hours.
