On December 8, 2023, ITVX will celebrate its first birthday. That is why the company took a look back in celebration of its inaugural year and all the new streaming platform has achieved, plus a look forward to what 2024 and beyond will bring.
According to the firm, ITVX was this year’s biggest and most successful streaming launch in the UK with over 2.7 billion streams since launch and more than 40 million registered users. Moreover, the service was up year on year across all genres – drama, sport and film have more than doubled. Other highlights are: 88% of viewers who watch a premier go on to watch other content, streaming hours for men have increased by over 100 million this year, and 1 billion streaming hours were registered.
Regarding specific content, “Love Island” has been streamed 340 million times (over 60% of the audience is 16-34s); the Rugby World Cup has been streamed 60 million times, up +80% on the last tournament in 2019; and “Big Brother” presented 36 episodes, with 38 million streams. In total, 216 programmes have been watched by a million or more viewers, and there were 200 million streams for eight out of the past 11 months. Prior to launch, this only happened six times in six years.
The service is now available on more platforms than ever before and awareness of the product is peaking at an impressive 90% of the UK population. ITVX went on to win Best On Demand Service at the Edinburgh TV Awards and Media Brand of the Year at the Media Week Awards, both earlier this year. The platform also has the world’s first British Sign Language FAST channel, and in the summer the company launched ITVX Kids, which is 100% subtitled.
Breakout hits exclusively launched on ITVX in 2023 include “The Twelve,” a gripping courtroom drama starring Sam Neill; the first two series of Irvine Welsh’s “Crime; Love & Death,” starring Elizabeth Olsen in a true story of a 1980’s Texas housewife accused of murder; “Vanishing Act,” the story of Melissa Caddick’s disappearance after being confronted by authorities for her alleged multi-million dollar swindling; two-part documentary “The Case Against Cosby”; and comedy “Changing Ends,” based on Alan Carr's childhood in Northampton in the 1980’s, which has just been recommissioned.
In addition, the latest series of “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!” has been streamed over 20.5 million times in the first week alone, up by more than 3 million on the same period last year (+17%).
For 2024, ITVX is planning to introduce: a pause ad format, short form advertising opportunities, new distribution partners, and even more sponsorship opportunities. “2024 will see us focus on further increased distribution, even more and improved commercial opportunities, an abundance of regional news offerings and of course even more exclusive, fresh and exciting content for free. Happy first birthday ITVX,” said Rufus Radcliffe, Managing Director of Streaming at ITV.
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