ITV surpasses anticipated streaming figures in 2022

ITV Studios recently reported a record year in streaming figures following thelaunch of ITVX and the livestreams of "I’m A Celebrity" and the "World Cup." “Away from live streaming, we are delighted with the reception for our strong slate of commissioned launch titles," Rufus Radcliffe, the Managing Director of Streaming, Interactive & Data, said. "It is great to see so many viewers coming from the harder to reach audiences that we don’t typically attract to streaming, and that we are aiming to bring in for our exclusive content.  “With over 15,000 hours of programming and films on ITVX, there really is something for everyone.  Our new service is much more of a destination for discovery and will offer so much more content to engage users for longer, which is another key objective for us.”

ITV’s biggest week ever for streaming was 22 - 28 November, which attracted 106.4 million streams and covered the last week of "I'm A Celebrity" and 16 World Cup matches, including England v USA. The launch of ITVX rounds off a strong year for ITV in streaming - which saw our biggest ever year for streams of Love Island (273 million +28%), our biggest year yet in streaming for I’m A Celebrity (57 million +156%) and our highest ever total of drama streams across the year to date. (309 million a +30% increase on last year).

ITVX, ITV’s new, free streaming service attracted 66.5 million streams in the first week after its launch (8 – 14 December) – an increase of 138% compared to the same period last year when ITV Hub had 28 million streams. Viewers were attracted by the quarter and semi-finals of the World Cup, together with new exclusive content such as cold war drama A Spy Among Friends starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce, which has performed well bringing new and light viewers to ITV. The launch week included ITV’s biggest ever day for streaming, with 30 million streams on Saturday 10 December, driven by ITV’s coverage of England v France and Morocco v Portugal.

Around 2 million more registered users had signed up to the service, since the roll out began in November. "ITVX has seen a 138% increase in online viewing compared to the same period last year and it is great to see so many people coming into our brilliant new streaming home," Radcliffe said. "The football has been a big part of that but even if you take out exceptional programmes like I’m A Celebrity and the World Cup our underlying viewing during the week was up 56% year on year."

At least one new show will launch on ITVX per week going forward, which will be exclusive to streaming for many months before receiving a linear transmission on one of ITV’s channels. "Litvinenko" starring David Tennant and Mark Bonnar launched on 15 December, while family drama "Riches" starring Deborah Ayorinde and Hugh Quarshie will launch on 22 December alongside landmark natural history documentary "A Year on Planet Earth" presented by Stephen Fry. The four-part thriller "Without Sin" starring Vicky McClure and adrenaline-fuelled new game show "Loaded in Paradise" will launch on 28 December.