ITVX 2024 roadmap includes regional news and pause advertising
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John Moulding
| 01 December 2023
1 ITVX 2024 roadmap includes regional news and pause advertising
Nearly a year after launch, ITV has hailed the success of its streaming service ITVX, with 216 programmes that have been watched by 1+ million viewers so far. Plans for 2024 include regionalised news, news pop-up channels and pause advertising.

The 2024 roadmap also includes short form advertising and more sponsorship opportunities for advertisers, plus new distribution partners for the service. ITVX is one year old on December 8, and ITV has revealed some key statistics from year one:
1 billion streaming hours consumed – a record for ITV.
Over 2.7 billion streams since launch, another new record for the broadcaster.
More than 40 million users now registered for ITV streaming.
Viewing of drama, sport and film have more than doubled, with all genres up.
200m streams recorded during eight of the past 11 months. Prior to launch, this only happened six times in six years (when the service was smaller, and called ITV Hub).
Love Island has been streamed 340 million times (with over 60% of the audience in the 16-34 demographic).
The Rugby World Cup has been streamed 60 million times, up +80% on the 2019 tournament.
Streaming hours for men have increased by over 100 million this year.
The latest ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ was streamed over 20.5 million times in its first week recently, up 17% on the same period last year.
ITV has been releasing some of its top drama on ITVX months ahead of broadcast linear release, and the company has revealed that 88% of viewers who watch a premier go on to watch other content on the streaming service.

Breakout hits exclusively launched on ITVX in 2023 included ‘The Twelve’ (a gripping courtroom drama starring Sam Neill), ‘Love & Death’ (starring Elizabeth Olsen in a true story of a 1980s Texas housewife accused of murder), and the first two series of Irvine Welsh’s ‘Crime; Vanishing Act’ (the story of Melissa Caddick’s disappearance after being confronted by authorities for her alleged multi-million dollar swindling).

This week, ITVX is launching 12 regional news services. These will carry all the broadcaster’s regional news programmes and feature short form VOD of some of the strongest content from the nations and regions [of the UK], There will also be some exclusive regional reports made just for ITVX.

From January there will be an occasional pop-up news channel on ITVX to cover dramatic stories as they develop. On a lighter note, ITVX will be the new home of The Oscars, starting in 2024, as part of the live offering on the platform. On the accessibility innovation front, ITVX has the the world’s first British Sign Language FAST channel, and in summer 2023 it launched ITVX Kids, which is 100% subtitled.

Rufus Radcliffe, MD of Streaming at ITV, says: “As we approach the first year milestone of ITVX, it’s important to reflect on the runaway success of the service – and we’re just getting started. 2024 will see us focus on further increased distribution, even more and improved commercial opportunities, an abundance of regional news offerings and more exclusive, fresh and exciting content for free. Happy first birthday ITVX!”


Comment

One of the most pressing questions in television is how broadcasters increase their share of digital (streaming) viewing time and ITVX is demonstrating many of the tactics needed. It went all-in on digital premieres, giving major new shows a months-long exclusivity window on ITVX before they hit broadcast schedules.
When the service launched last December, it virtually quadrupled the amount of content hours available (versus its predecessor, ITV Hub – harnessing a rich catalogue.) The introduction of regional news reflects the fact that over time, as more viewers stream, streaming services need to give us what we have in broadcast television. This development will also encourage more consumption on the platform.

Meanwhile, the introduction of a pause advertising format is a welcome innovation (not directly related to increasing share of digital viewing time – although smart, non-interruptive ad formats do have the potential to improve the viewing experience if they help keep ad loads lower than they would otherwise have been).

Pause ads is where a typically static ad – with excellent creative production value – appears when someone presses pause. It is like having a glossy digital billboard in the corner of the room until someone presses ‘play’ again. It does not require additional inventory or ad load, yet helps content owners monetise their programming – which means more money for content investment, ultimately.

There is no obvious downside to consumers from pause advertising, so it represents an easy win for both ad buyers (offering additional branding opportunities) and ad sellers.