David Farnor | On 07, Nov 2022

ITVX will officially launch on 8th December, as ITV looks to revamp its streaming presence.

The free platform will replace ITV Hub as the home of all ITV online programming and provide a full catalogue of ITV drama past and present to go on the service, as well as documentaries, cult classics and films. The platform will provide more than 10,000 hours of content in high definition – a significant step up from ITV Hub’s standard definition – and will feature live-streams of all ITV channels, as well as additional themed channels (FAST channels) and a news section, including bitesize and in-depth reports from ITV’s bulletings.

At launch, that means you can expect more than 200 series, while new and exclusive programmes will be released every week. ITVX will debut with a collection of exclusive new dramas, including the six-part Cold War drama A Spy Among Friends, starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce, teen drama Tell Me Everything, period drama The Confessions of Frannie Langton, starring Karla-Simone Spence, Sophie Cookson and Patrick Martins, and Plebs: Soldiers of Rome, the feature-length finale to the comedy series.

At least one flagship show will then launch on ITVX per week going forward. Litvinenko, starring David Tennant and Mark Bonnar, will launch on Thursday 15th December, and high-stakes family drama Riches, starring Deborah Ayorinde and Hugh Quarshie, will launch on 22nd December, alongside natural history documentary A Year on Planet Earth, presented by Stephen Fry. Gripping four-part thriller Without Sin, starring Vicky McClure, and new game show Loaded in Paradise will launch on 28th December. Nolly, Russell T Davies’ upcoming drama about Crossroads’ Noele Gordon, will launch in early 2023.

The platform will also drop full box sets of ITV shows alongside their initial linear TV broadcast, including Stonehouse, starring Matthew Macfadyen and Keeley Hawes, and the new season of Unforgotten, available in early 2023.

ITVX will feature a dedicated true crime collection, which will feature more than 150 hours of TV, including Monster in My Family, which delves into the lives of serial killers in a way, and The Case Against Cosby – a documentary exposing new truths about accusations against the comedian, arriving in 2023.

A robust science fiction and fantasy catalogue will range from classics including Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Terrahawks, Joe 90, Stingray, Space 199 and UFO to the likes of Supernatural, The 100 and Nikita, plus Astrid & Lilly Save the World and Korean-American hit series Dramaworld.

The platform will also launch with more than 250 films, including the Back to the Future trilogy, the Despicable Me trilogy, Wonder Woman and more. The full Fast and Furious series of films will be added to the platform in 2023.

ITVX will be a free platform with adverts, but viewers will also have the option of an ad-free paid subscription, with paying subscribers also getting access to BritBox UK.

For more on ITVX, including listings, reviews and recommendations, stay tuned to VODzilla.co.

 

ITVX: ITV unveils new streaming platform plans

3rd March 2022

ITV is once again given its streaming strategy an overhaul with the launch of ITVX later this year.

The broadcaster has long been fighting for its share of audience eyeballs online as well as on linear TV, with ITV Player replaced back in 2015 by its current catch-up platform, ITV Hub – an integration of on-demand programming and the main ITV website. In 2016, it followed that with the addition of ITV Hub+, a paid subscription option that allows viewers to stream programmes on ITV Hub without adverts.

Last year, ITV Hub hit record highs, with ITV Hub+ reaching 567,000 subscribers in July, thanks to a combination of Coronation Street, Emmerdale, the Euro 2020 tournament and Love Island drawing in users.

At the same time, ITV has also been navigating subscription streaming waters with the separate platform BritBox UK, a joint venture with the BBC that was designed to compete more directly with Netflix and other SVOD competitors. BritBox UK recently surpassed 733,000 subscribers.

Juggling these has been a challenge, however, and ITV has long been exploring ways of combining ITV Hub+ and BritBox into joint or complementing subscription products. At the same time, it’s experimented with everything from releasing box sets on BritBox UK and ITV Hub in full alongside their ITV debut and broadcasting BritBox UK exclusives on ITV at a later date to provide some added exposure.

Now, it seems to have found its solution – another rebrand of its online presence that will involve another new platform, called ITVX. It has even bought out the BBC’s 10 per cent stake in BritBox UK to make it possible.

ITVX is billed as “the UK’s first integrated advertising and subscription-funded platform”, but it will function in much the same way that ITV Hub already does: viewers can currently use ITV Hub with ads or pay for an ITV Hub+ subscription – a model that All 4 also uses, offering its own premium, ad-free subscription called All 4+. ITVX will similarly offer users either a free, ad-funded tier or a subscription option without ads. An ITVX subscription will then also include box sets from BritBox and other partners.

In other words, ITVX will bring together ITV Hub’s current catch-up catalogue with BritBox’s library in one new platform. To give you an idea of scale, ITV Hub currently houses about 4,000 hours of content while ITVX will have roughly 15,000 hours at launch.

The platform will include all the licensed shows from UK broadcasters currently on BritBox UK, including the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, plus existing exclusives such as Classic Doctor Who. Other new BritBox commissions on the way include espionage drama A Spy Among Friends, starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce, Nolly starring Helena Bonham Carter, Lenny Henry’s six part drama The Little Birds and Litvinenko, starring David Tennant. New ITVX-exclusive programmes in the pipeline will comprise a raft of comedy titles, including a new series using Deep Fake techniques, and a feature-length finale for Plebs.

ITV has also inked a deal with WarnerMedia International Television Distribution for US programmes, including the UK premieres of The Sex Lives of College Girls and All American, as well as archive shows such as The OC, One Tree Hill, The 100, Supernatural and Veronica Mars.

Films, which are a key part of BBC iPlayer and All 4’s streaming appeal, will be a part of ITVX too. ITV aims to stream 500 movies for free on the platform in its first year, with 150 films on the service at any one time.

ITVX will also mark a shift to digital-first windowing for ITV, similar to BBC iPlayer and Channel 4. Most new programmes – “all the drama and comedy ITV commissions and the majority of reality series” – will launch on ITVX all-at-once before airing on ITV’s traditional, linear channels in the traditional fashion.

ITVX will also feature themed streaming channels it calls “FAST Channels” (Free Ad-supported TV Channels). These follow AVOD platform Pluto TV’s model of using pop-up themed channels to stream titles 24/7 in a rolling “as live” schedule. ITVX’s FAST Channels will be themed around, for example, Hell’s Kitchen US and The Chase.

For now, BritBox UK will remain a standalone subscription platform, including forthcoming originals Why Don’t They Ask Evans? and The Dry, while ITV Hub will continue to be ITV’s catch-up destination.

The launch date of the new, revised ITVX – and its pricing – is yet to be confirmed. A subscription to ITV Hub+ currently costs £3.99 a month, while a BritBox UK subscription currently costs £5.99 a month.

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